Noragami
by writerzero
Summary: During a ritual cleansing of a school, the regalia start going berserk, leading to the gods disappearing. Desperate to find her friends, Hiyori encounters many battles, and does things she never thought she would, such as descending into the underworld.
1. Chapter 1

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Based on the anime 'Noragami' and '__Noragami_ _Aragoto_.'_ Does not include the OVAs or the manga._

_Time: A few weeks after the second season (Noragami Aragoto)._

Hiyori settled back in the hospital bed, sitting comfortable. The head of the her bed was raised as far as it could go, while in front of her, on the small table where her meals were usually served, there rested a math book. She was fine, healthy as horse, or so her father said, but he, as well as her mother, had tired of their daughter's all too often periods of being comatose. With their being people of modern-day reason, their daughter had not even bothered to try to explain to them that at those times she was outside her body, able to travel and act at will as a spirit. That she saw and spoke to gods and regalia, the weapons of gods.

The ofttimes troubled expression on her parents' faces bothered Hiyori, causing her some degree of guilt. Yet ... The girl sighed, and pushed back a lock of plain brown hair as she raised her unusual, magenta-colored eyes toward the ceiling. They focused on things unseen and she raised her right hand with two fingers extended. A less-than-spectacular crescent blade of white energy leapt from her fingertips to slice in two a mouse-sized creature that had had way too many eyes. A week ago she'd had the opportunity to watch Yukine, the regalia of Yato, practice invocations. He'd explained the process to her, and while it shouldn't have worked, it did. She wasn't a regalia, not even truly a devotee of any god or goddess, yet it seemed her puny human spirit could use basic invocations – albeit only at a nearly useless level of power.

Yato had just scratched his head, and shrugged it off, though his expression had remained confused for nearly a whole ten minutes before he'd been called off on a five-yen job. Kofuku, a goddess of poverty, and her regalia, Daikoku, had talked it over and concluded that she shouldn't be able to.

"Hi honey," a man's voice spoke from the doorway.

"Hey dad," Hiyori replied, glancing towards the heavy-set man who boasted a head of short cropped, dark-brown hair. "How were the tests," she needlessly asked.

"Nothing showing up on the CAT scan. Blood work is fine. Fitness test shows you to be a normal, athletic girl of sixteen." His confused, and heavily worried looking eyes peered into hers. "There's no reason you should be having uncontrollable bouts of sleep."

"I assume the drugs tests were negative." Hiyori couldn't help but sigh and rolled her eyes in a very unladylike fashion. Sure, she understood her parent's concern, but that one she felt had gone a bit too far.

The man blushed and averted his eyes, looking sheepish. "We love you, Hiyori, so yes, we're covering all the bases." He raised his hand to momentarily adjust the stethoscope around his neck. "They all came back negative, as we knew they would."

Hiyori smiled. "Good to know. I would never take drugs, and I'm sort of offended, but it feels kind of good to know you care so much about me to insist."

"Your mother and I trust you, Hiyori, but ..." Her father's face darkened and he looked down, showing a weariness that wasn't unusual for him. "Just last week we had three cases. Teens, your age, at a party, ... Opioids."

"Never me," she assured him.

"Instead," a woman's voice spoke from behind her father, "you slump off bus seats with your rump in the air."

Hiyori gulped, recalling the _incident _that'd led to her latest incarceration at the hospital. She'd been taking the bus, looking out the window, daydreaming. Nothing unusual there. Nor was there anything unusual, at least not for her, to find herself drifting outside of her body, doing a sort of forced astral projection trick. She'd known her body was safe in her seat – except it hadn't been. She'd slumped down with, as her mother had put it, her rump in the air. Whether her skirt had slid above her hips as she'd slid off the seat, or if someone had flipped it, she didn't know. But ... Hiyori clenched her teeth, grinding them, even as the memory caused her to turn beet red. Everyone these days had cell phones, and there'd _almost_ been pictures. Only almost because, even as she'd flipped her skirt back down, she'd used her newfound skill at invocation to slice at least nine of the blasted things into oblivion.

"_Okay, weak as it is compared to that of the regalia, the skill isn't totally useless," _Hiyori thought, fists clenched. She took a deep breath and relaxed. Her reputation had been saved, almost. But only almost because people still talked.

"What if you fall asleep crossing the road?" her mother asked, coming into view from behind her husband. Her faced was screwed up in worry. "You had an accident once when a bus hit you. That's when all this started. Is that what happened? You fell asleep and fell into the road?" A shaking hand rose to push back her long, light-brown hair, showing features that clearly showed her as Hiyori's mother. Other than Hiyori's magenta-colored eyes and slightly darker brown hair, mother and daughter were nearly identical.

In an effort to distract her parents Hiyori grabbed an apple from a nearby fruit basked. "Since I'm stuck here, want to see a magic trick I've been practicing."

Eyebrows of both mother and father raised as they gave their daughter their undivided attention. "Magic trick?" her father asked, quizzically.

Hiyori nodded. "Got to keep busy, you know."

"Your grades," her mother immediately countered, "could use some work. They've been falling."

Hiyori gulped again, and held up the apple in her left hand. "Unpeeled, see ..." She showed them the large, bright-red apple. 'Eyes closed, see..." She closed her eyes, pointing at them. "Now watch."

She flipped the apple into the air with her left hand while her right hand rose with two fingers extended. One invocation as the apple raised, a second invocation as it reached its peak, and finally a third as the apple fell back into her left palm. She repeated the process several times before she opened her amber eyes to smile at her confused parents. Now it's peeled, see ... She held out the apple on which only trace amount of the red peel remained.

Her father scratched his head, teeth clenched in concentration as he worked to figure out the trick.

"Magic tricks, young lady," her mother intoned, looking just a little cross, "won't boost your grades."

"Um ..." Her father smiled, still eyeing the apple. "Now, dear, her grades are perfectly fine. Sure they've dropped a little. "He cast a stern look at his daughter. "But nothing to worry about yet. And who knows, maybe she'll try out for clown school. I'm sure that trick would help her there."

"How?" her father then asked, turning his attention back to her.

Hiyori smiled again. "Check this out." She placed the apple on the table, then settled back in the bed, arm folded with her eyes closed. The apple rose two feet above the table, and there was a crunch as invisible teeth took a large bite.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Hiyori said, slipping back into the body she'd briefly exited.

"How?" Her father asked again, scratching his head. His eyes were flickering from girl to apple, and back.

"A magician never reveals her secrets," Hiyori answered, still smiling. "When do I get out?"

"About that ..." Her father turned to look at her mother.

"No buts," the woman stated. "Do it." She glanced over at her daughter, eyes filled with concern. "It's just for a while, honey."

"What is?"

"We want to see what happens when you fall comatose," her father explained with a sight. 'So we need to hook you up to a few machines for a while." He motioned to someone Hiyori couldn't see and two nurses entered the room, pulling two machines behind them.

Hiyori groaned.

Ten minutes later her parents and the nurses disappeared out the door, leaving Hiyori with numerous brightly colored wires sprouting from her head and body, looking very much like something from a mad science project.

Closing her eyes, making sure her body was comfortable, Hiyori focused. With practice she could now leave and enter her body almost at will. There was a slight sensation of weight and extreme drowsiness, then she was beside the bed, watching herself sleep. For a few minutes she stood there, thinking.

_I know this is putting a strain on me, _she mused, reaching out to gently remove some hair that'd fallen in her sleeping-self's eyes. _I have two lives, and it taking up way too much time. _She moved to look out the window, to gaze across the city. _And yet, how many girls could say they've been swept off their feet by a god. Sure it wasn't in a romantic way, but ... _She recalled being carried above the city in the arms of Yato, safe and warm, breathing deeply of that ever so sweet scent of his.

She rested a hand against the window, tapping it with her index finger, lost in thought. _I've seen gods battle each other and phantoms. I've seen divine punishment delivered by the heavens, I've looked into the underworld and called out the names of gods. And Yukine? He's like a brother. _

Turning aside from the window, she grabbed the notebook that her math book had been resting on. Seconds later she was outside, effortlessly racing beneath a bright-blue sky, traveling along the telephone wires that were like a highway to her. In a short time she entered a small shop selling sweet sake and hot oden; it was also a house she knew to be the abode of a dark goddess.

"Hiyori," a girl's voice shrieked. A second later Hiyori went flying, having been tackled by a pink haired, purple-eyed girl – Kofuku, the goddess of poverty.

"Kofuku," Hiyori replied, trying, and failing, to evade the hands of the groping goddess. From what she'd heard and seen, the pink-haired girl had had enough romantic pursuits, all men, so her interest in Hiyori's breasts could only be a way to embarrass the girl. It worked.

A large hand, attached to a large and powerful, and very stern-looking, man, reached down to pull the goddess off the squirming girl. "My Lady, you'll scare the girl away if you keep that up." He looked at Hiyori. "Might that be why we haven't seen you in a while?"

"I had to catch up on school work," Hiyori explained. 'And my parents have been keeping me in the hospital. I didn't want to worry them by going comatose while I was there but ..." She closed her eyes and sighed, "I was warned, but my ties to the far shore are too great now. I can't even imagine going back to normal."

Daikoku nodded in sympathy. "I can see why you wouldn't want to, but ..."

"No," Hiyori yelped, hurrying to cut the man off. "I can't ask Yato to cut my ties to him, or to anyone. Don't you see, it's not just him anymore. I have dozens of links to the far shore; I would be losing a huge chunk of my memories of the past year, and they've changed me. If those ties are cut, I die. Sure there would still be a Hiyori walking around somewhere, but it wouldn't be me. It would be a someone who has different memories, and different views of the world. It would be someone who acted different. It wouldn't be me."

"She can't cut her ties," Kofuku interjected, still firmly held from another assault on Hiyori by Daikoku's firm grip on the collar of her white shirt. "Just how many visitors do we get? If she stops coming here ..." The girl went quiet, frowning. "And if she leaves, then Yukine won't need a place to do homework, so he'll leave too, and then ..." Kofuku stared into space, nervously chewing on her lower lip.

"Yukine loves it here," Hiyori hurried to state, fearful the much feared goddess of poverty might start crying in front of her. "I have no intentions of having my ties cut, but if they do break, Yukine is here to stay? You don't think Yato is going to start caring for him anytime soon, do you?"

"When the underworld freezes over," Daikoku muttered derisively.

"He's been working hard," Kofuku said, defending the absent god. "If he were to raise his rates."

Hiyori gave that some thought. In truth Yato did do quite a few jobs, but at five yen a job it would never add up to much. It would take twenty jobs just to get the hundred yen for a Mars bar. It wasn't slave wages; it was starvation wages.

"Hiyori," Yukine said, greeting the girl as he entered the door. His smile reached his amber eyes, causing a flutter in Hiyori's stomach.

_If he wasn't already dead, I would have to beat the girls off him with a stick," _Hiyori thought, fondly returning the smile. If she had a younger brother, she knew she'd want him to be just like Yukine. She held up the notebook. "Sorry it took so long," she said, settling down to teach the regalia grade nine math.

The next two hours passed peacefully. Kofuku offered them buns with melted cheese and cinnamon on top. Yukine worked on the assignment Hiyori had just given him, while she ruthlessly marked his previous one, being sure to make liberal use of comments to correct any mistakes he'd made. For the two it was bliss. And if appearances was anything to go by, Kofuku and Daikoku were more than pleased to have the company.

Looking around the room, nibbling on a bun, Hiyori realized just how much like a family they seemed. Yukine would be the son, studiously doing homework, while she was a friend visiting to work on assignments. From idle talk amongst the various gods she'd met, she knew Kofuku had once tried to adopt a boy, and the whole process had failed miserably. But now it seemed that of a son was the role Yukine filled in their lives. With Yato having no place of his own, and nighttime being immensely dangerous for shinki, loose spirits named by a god, it was an ideal setting for the teenage boy. A loving mother, a strong father type, and friends. Yato she saw as an untrustworthy, older brother to the boy.

Impulsively, Hiyori stood and walked over to hug the shocked goddess of poverty. "I love this place, and you guys," she said, tightening the hug. "And thanks for giving Yukine a home."

"Hiyori," Kofuku said, shrieking into the girl's ear. "I love you too." Her own arms closed around the teenager.

"Oh boy," Yato said, having just walked in the door. "Hiyori and Kofuku in girl-on-girl love. I so did not see that coming." He turned away, flipping a five-yen coin into the air and catching it. "But who am I to complain. Another job well done, another five yen. My dreams are coming true." He yawned. "Was a big job, a hundred toilets and a hundred urinals to scrub at the All Saints All Boys School." With a shake of his head he added, "lost count of how many toothbrushes I went through. Hope the kids don't mind; I did return them, after all."

"You have chores here if you want to stay," Daikoku yelled, reaching out to grab Yato by the back of his jumpsuit.

"Sleepy time," Yato insisted.

Peeling herself, with some difficulty, from Kofuku's arms, Hiyori grinned at the disappearing back of Yato. "I have a job for the great Yato," she said, confident she knew how to get the ex-god of calamity to do his chores. She flipped the coin into the air. "Scrub the bathroom and floors," she said.

Yato caught the coin, yawned again, and headed off to sleep. "Be right on it," he lied.

Hiyori pulled out another coin. "Also cook all meals for the next month," she stated, still sure of her plan. She flipped the coin.

"Right on, boss lady," Yato said, snatching the second coin from the air.

Hiyori took out another coin. "My wish is that if you fail to grant the two previous wishes in a timely fashion, you're to give me all the five-yen coins you currently have." She flipped the third coin.

Yato watch the coin as it turned in the air, trying to resist. The attempt was in vain as he found himself throwing his body at the floor, scrambling after the coin.

"Since you took the coin, I'm assuming you took the job," Hiyori said. "Remember, all your five- yen coins if you fail. And you can't get rid them since I stated, all the ones you currently have."

Yato sighed, then put a smile on his face. "All jobs, always done to satisfaction," he said, pocketing the fifteen yen. "Now, what do you want for supper tomorrow?" He took out a notepad and pencil and turned towards Kofuku.

"I'm off," Hiyori said, slipping out the door. "I want to get back to the hospital before the phantoms really come out in storm."

With an effortless leap Hiyori was on the telephone wire again. There was more than a little bounce in her steps as she traveled back to the hospital. In the form a spirit she was naturally light, and felt as if she had boundless energy. Plus she was feeling good. Sure there were problems in her life, but as things went that life could only be described as great. She had a great family. Great friends. Great health. Everything she could ever need.

"From now on I'll be more careful where I leave my body,"Hiyori promised herself, speaking to the darkening sky.

Arriving back at the hospital she found her parents sitting beside her bed. Her father was trying to be stoic, but she saw his eyes twitch, and he was nervously tapping on the rail of her bed. On the other side of her bed her mother was making no attempt to hide her panic.

"There has to be something," the woman insisted. "There has to be."

Her father looked at the machines she'd been hooked to a little over two hours previously. "Nothing. From the looks of it she just slipped into a rather deep sleep." He stopped tapping on the bed long enough to give one of the devices a few taps, still eyeing the readout display. "Brainwaves are normal enough for someone in a deep sleep. Her heart rate and blood pressure are all perfect. If they were any better I'd swear she was faking them."

Her good mood abating just a little, Hiyori slid back into her body. "Hey," she said, greeting her parents. "Wanna see another magic trick?"

"No," her mother almost shrieked. "The only trick I want to see you do, young lady, is to stop sleeping so much."

"Now mom," Hiyori said gently, reaching out to clasp her mother's hand. "I'm okay. All the tests say so."

"Then it's not physically," the woman replied, a crazy light lighting up in her eyes. "It has to be mental. You need to see a psychiatrist. And a psychologist. And a neural surgeon. And ..."

Hiyori dropped the shaking hand and shrank back into her bed. "You know, mom, maybe a few more of these tests dad is running would be okay. Better than okay. A few more would be great."

"I'll make the appointments," her mother replied, heedless of her daughter's panic.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: The next morning._

Awaking in her own bed, free of wires, and with no danger of nurses demanding blood or urine from her, Hiyori yawned and stretched. Having gotten the tests he wanted the previous night, her father had ordered the removal of the medical devices and set her free. Her mother had protested, but his calm reasoning, along with some pleading from her, had won the day. There was still the danger of having to see a shrink, but for now she had a few hours before school, hours she planned on putting to good use.

It was what she'd decided the night before. She would go to bed a little early, and rise a little early. The early mornings when her parents would expect her to be in bed, sound asleep, she would wander in her spirit form. She didn't need to be in spirit form to talk with Yato or Yukine, or any of the others, but being in that form was exhilarating. And it was only in that form that she could keep pace with the other spirits.

Within an hour, showered and dressed, she took to the outside world where her first stop of the day was to stand atop her own house to greet the morning sun. Phantoms, she knew, usually hated the daylight; rather, it was the night they loved. While it wasn't a steadfast rule, daytime was usually much safer for free spirits.

A sniff of the air told her Yato wasn't anywhere close-by, so she decided to take a stroll, to enjoy the view, the sheer freedom. Leaping along the telephone wires, sometimes taking shortcuts across rooftops, she was soon miles from home, bright eyes taking in every little detail of her journey.

There was little traffic, and the few people she saw walking were strangers. Her school friends were still probably asleep while Yato was nowhere to be seen. Twice she'd crossed the scent of a god, that of Bishamon, the most powerful of all the war gods, but that was someone she wished to, at all cost, avoid. While the goddess might have forsaken her vendetta against Yato, the woman was scary in a way that terrified her.

_She was all too eager to kill Yukine for what Yato did, _Hiyori thought, seething a little. While she understood the woman's rage, Yukine had been an innocent in the whole matter that'd taken places ages before he'd even been born a human, let-a-lone as a spirit or regalia. That, Hiyori thought, was crossing the line.

_And she would've killed me as well. _Hiyori gulped, feeling a little faint from the prospect of the goddess of war hunting her down. _Thank goodness she didn't realize I was friends with Yato._

It wasn't that she hated Bishamon, or didn't respect her, or didn't wish her well. In fact, for what she'd been willing to do to save Yato from the underworld, Hiyori thought she might immensely like the woman. But she also feared her. When she ran into Yato she knew what to expect – to be treated as a close friend to be splurged off. Yet, when need be, he was the stanchest ally and protector a girl could ever ask for. He was a true friend. When she went to Kofuku's she knew what to expect – to be treated as a close friend not only of Kofuku herself, but also of Yukine who they treated like a son, When she went to the shrine of Tenjin she knew what to expect – to be treated as a pupil to be given direction. Whether she followed that direction was up to her.

But Bishamon was different; with her Hiyori wasn't sure what to expect. Nor was she exactly sure how to behave around the goddess. So, when her nose told her of potential encounters with Bishamon, she took the route of caution.

Frowning, not liking the way her morning walk had twice been disrupted, Hiyori turned to move at a slightly faster pace away from the scent she'd detected. Fifteen minutes later she came across someone she did recognize, albeit not someone she'd ever talked to.

_That's the little priestess, _Hiyori noted, seeing the girl walking on the street thirty feet below. _What's she up to? And can she really sense spirits? _

The rather petite girl, possessing shoulder-length, black hair and brown eyes, was a recent transfer student to Hiyori's school. Dressed in a typical schoolgirl outfit, much like the one Hiyori was current wearing, she in no way looked like a priestess. If anything, she was the very image of what one might consider the schoolgirl image. Hiyori wasn't sure she'd ever heard the girl's real name; the girl's nickname had, however, pursued her despite the transfer.

Hiyori dropped the thirty feet to the ground, sure it would evoke some response from the girl if she saw it. A yelp of concern, if nothing else. The little priestess continued on her way without a sound.

"Hey," Hiyori yelled. Still no response. _Guess she can't see spirits after all._ It was a little disappointing. Another person who could see the spirit world would've made her feel a little more normal. It would've been someone she could introduce Yukine to. _Which might not have been the wisest thought to cross my mind, _Hiyori mused. _It would've been a reminder of the world he can't go back to. Yep, definitely a bad idea._

A phantom, the size of a small dog, ran into street and Hiyori raised her hand, two fingers extended. Seeing the little priestess pause, Hiyori did likewise.

The lips of the little priestess turned down while it looked as if her eyes were focusing on the dog-like creature. Her hands rose to make a gesture that probably had some spiritual significance, and then she walked on, making sure to take a detour around the phantom.

'So you can see spirits," Hiyori said, walking up to the girl who continued to ignore her.

Hiyori turned aside, deciding that if the girl wanted to pretend she couldn't see spirits, then it wasn't her place to bother her. That would be rude. And it wouldn't prove anything. Spirits weren't exactly invisible; they were just things that people's minds tended to pretend they couldn't see. If she were to force the issue, the girl might see her, just as they could see Yukine or Yato if either of them demanded attention.

_Thought that whole point has me confused, _Hiyori admitted. _Why could Yukine buy things at a store, meaning people could see him, yet him smashing windows was something people couldn't see? Or him riding a skateboard around a store?_

The little priestess turned up a driveway and Hiyori followed her, still curious even though she knew she should turn away and leave the girl alone. The girl turned to look at her, but her eyes slid past those of Hiyori. Her hands rose again to make that strange gesture. And for Hiyori it clicked.

_She knows something is here, but she can't see it. She can sense spirits, not see them. _Hiyori gave that some though. _But if she's sensing me, then why doesn't it go to the next step, like Yato asking for a cup of water in that restaurant? Once she knows something is here, why doesn't she then see me?_

Hiyori shook her head and sighed, watching as the girl ran a door bell.

"Morning priestess," said a gray-haired old woman of maybe seventy. She gave the girl a small bow.

"Morning," the little priestess replied. "Is now a good time? I would like to get the ceremony in before school."

"It is, priestess," the woman replied, standing aside to let the girl in.

Hiyori followed the little priestess as she stepped inside, and while the girl's lips turned down in confusion she said nothing.

'Is something wrong, priestess?" the woman asked.

"No, just seems to be a lot of spirits about this morning," the girl replied. "You're sure it's the baby's room again."

"It is." The old woman frowned deeply. "It has me worried. Anna doesn't believe in such things, but I'm sure it's something ..." She paused.

"I understand," the girl replied. "If I couldn't sense spirits, I would be just like her. After all, who wants to believe half the world is made of something they can't see."

"I'll pay ..."

"This is a repeat visit, the forth actually, and I don't charge for repeat visits. Remember?" She gave the woman a generous smile.

"Of course, but ..." The woman sighed. "It's not my imagination. I swear. My memory is just fine."

"What I sense, feel rather, when a spirit is nearby is not something you could fake," the little priestess said, reassuring the old woman, patting her on the back. "For one, since you don't know what I feel when I sense a spirit you wouldn't know how to fake it. I know something is there, and I do the ceremony, but ..." Now it was her turn to sigh. "I'm sorry, but I'm not the best at banishing spirits. You might need someone with more skill."

"They're all fakes," the woman said, sounding shocked. "I would never trust one of them."

"If it fails this time, then it might be best to turn another room into the baby's room," the little priestess suggested. "Be safer than letting her sleep in there."

"I'll suggest it," the woman replied. "But that'll be a lot of work. I know Anna won't go for it." There was a sense of weariness to the words that showed in the woman's speech and posture.

Hiyori followed the two as they stepped into what was clearly a baby's room with pink walls and a pink crib. Baby toys were stacked on a shelf, while there was a play pen resting in a corner. On the wall, above a changing table, was a large mirror.

"I see," Hiyori muttered to herself, already knowing why, assuming the little priestess could banish spirits at all, that this job might be beyond her.

After a few minutes of cooing over the baby girl, who squealed gleefully at the much loved attention, the little priestess set to work. Incense was lit, while what Hiyori assumed to be holy water was sprinkled around the room. There followed twenty minutes of chanting while the girl held out a stick of the incense and made strange symbols in the air. During the whole process Hiyori saw no sign of a phantom and the little priestess was now frowning deeply. If Hiyori had to guess, the girl also couldn't sense the spirit she'd come to banish.

"I'll try again tomorrow," the little priestess said, showing signs of fatigue. "This is ..." She frowned and shook her head. "From the records I've read the room should be cleansed. But I'm betting the problem will return."

Just then, the baby seeing that the three people in the room were not paying it any heed, got bored with watching them. It turned it's attention to the mirror just a few feet away and waved at its reflection. From the back of the crib a small apparition in the shape of pitch-black, six-eyed, vampire bat rose.

The hand of the little priestess rose and the chanting started again. She turned to follow the evil spirit, once again making gestures in the air with the incense.

To Hiyori's shock the little priestess glowed with a faint aura of white light. Around her hands the power intensified, becoming brighter. It wasn't exactly blinding, but the light was clearly visible. At times the apparition, as the little priestess attempted to follow it, came into contact with that light with dire consequence. Where spirit flesh met light, flesh burned and turned to ash that faded before it hit the floor.

But the priestess couldn't actually see the apparition, and the spirit was never fully enveloped. What more, the flesh that was burned away quickly grew back, leaving it whole and unharmed.

_She doesn't realize it's the mirror, _Hiyori thought, frowning. _That the baby, in its wish for a playmate, is creating the apparition from its own reflection. _She recalled what Yato had told her what seemed like ages ago – that the apparition would eventually posses the baby's mother, or in this case, grandmother.

The tired priestess stopped her chanting and shook her head. "This is going nowhere," she admitted.

"Maybe it was just my imagination," the old woman said, frowning, clearly doubting her senses that warned her of unseen danger. "Maybe I'm just getting old."

"No, there's definitely something here. At least sometimes. But it's just mocking me."

The apparition flew around the room, then landed on the old woman's shoulder. It's fangs latched onto the woman's left ear and she raised a hand to rub at it.

While the apparition didn't seem especially powerful, being maybe just six inches from wingtip to wingtip, the act frightened Hiyori and even as her left hand reached for the baby, her right hand rose to point at the mirror. Under her incantation a weak borderline leapt from her fingertips to smash the image in the mirror. The apparition vanished. So did the mirror in a thousand pieces that covered the room.

The woman and girl flew into action, both racing for the crib where they found a blanket had somehow been pulled above the child's eyes, protecting them from any shards of glass. Moving faster than any woman her age should be able to, the woman stripped the child and washed her, being careful to check for shards of glass in the girl's eyes and hair. Soon the child, having had plenty of attention for a while, was safely asleep in the woman's arms. The woman herself was in a rocking chair, clearly exhausted after such frenetic activity.

"I'm sorry, ..." the little priestess started.

The woman waved her hand. "It wasn't you who made the mirror break," she insisted. "It was strange, but now I got a reason to keep the child out of that room for the next few days. And who knows, maybe once the process is started whatever room I put her in will become her new bedroom."

"I think the room is safe now," the little priestess replied, though she sounded a bit uncertain. "For some reason I could sense two presences in there this time, but the malevolent one is gone." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Not sure why, but I think it broke the mirror, the not malevolent spirit that is, and when it did the malevolent spirit vanished." She looked down at the sleeping child. "Maybe she has a guardian spirit."

The old woman ran a hand through her thick, graying hair. "And you know, I feel pretty good. These last few months I've been feeling more and more tired, but now ..." She laughed. "All this running around has me exhausted, but I feel good."

Hiyori left the house feeling good herself that she'd helped them with the phantom, yet with a lingering sense of guilt over the mirror she'd broke. While the house had been neat and tidy, it hadn't looked as if the family had a ton of money. Nor had there been any need to break the mirror; it was just been that she'd panicked and hadn't been thinking straight, and had focused on cutting the mirror as well as the apparition.

With leaps and bounds she headed back to her own home, detouring twice more due to the scent of Bishamon. Why the goddess was hanging around the area so much during daylight hours she had no clue, and it puzzled her, but there was no way she was walking up to the divine being of war to ask. There she would take Tenjin's advice and stay far away. At least unless Yato was around to intercede if the woman decided she was a vengeful spirit that needed cleansing.

Once home she collected her body and headed to school.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: The same day at school._

The lingering guilt tore at Hiyori.

_How is this any different from Yukine stealing? _She asked herself, remorsefully staring out a window, unable to pay attention to an important lecture on civic duty.

_Yukine smashed windows, _the girl recalled, shuddering a little at the disaster that'd nearly caused. And also at the memory of the blight which only made her more miserable.

_Am I now no better than Yato? _She wondered, recalling the way the god of calamity sometimes acted. This caused her to go pale, causing her teacher to ask if she needed to go to the nurse's office.

_Of course they're both great, _Hiyori reminded herself. _I have some really really great friends._ Recalling the way Yato and Yukine had gone a little crazy when they thought Bishamon had kidnapped her she concluded, _they love me, and I love them._

Ten minutes later the nagging sense of remorse came back.

_I wonder how much the mirror cost? Can they afford to replace it? _She recalled the state of the house as being tidy, but the furnishings had seemed well worn. Unconsciously her hand reached for her purse, wondering if she could afford to replace it.

_Is the little priestess going to be okay? _The question nagged at her, causing her whole body to tense as she fervently worried. _She could see spirits, and banish them, but people won't go to her for help if they think she's a vandal. Did I cause her to lose business, business she needed for money for food? Will she now starve to death because I broke the mirror? Will she become a spectre and haunt me?_

_More importantly, did they get all the shards of glass. _Images of the baby cutting itself, or even swallowing such a shard, pounded relentlessly at her skull, causing her a headache that refused to go away. Visions of the baby screaming as blood poured from it mouth flashed before her, intermingled with images of the child with bleeding eyes where shards of the mirror had blinded her.

"Hiyori, go to the nurse's office," the teacher said, sounding a bit worried himself. "Your whimpering is disturbing the class. And you're way too pale."

It was two hours later, lunch time, that Hiyori found herself staring across the cafeteria at the little priestess who was sitting in a corner, alone. Time resting in the nurses office had given her a chance to calm down and conclude that the baby would be okay; the child's grandmother would not let the child back in that room for as long as she could avoid it. Nor would the little priestess, whatever her name was, starve. Still, she'd caused trouble, and so an apology as well as paying for the mirror was in order.

"I'm sorry," Hiyori said, speaking to the little priestess who'd been using chopsticks to take a bite of rice which seemed to be mixed with some vegetables. "I'm really sorry?"

The girl blinked and lowered her chopsticks. "For what?" she asked? "For calling me the little priestess? Everyone does. It's okay." Her brown eyes glanced up at Hiyori. "I like the nickname. It reminds me I serve the goddess."

"Not that, though that is what I call you?"

"We haven't met before, so what else could you be apologizing for?" She gave the unknown girl a friendly smile.

Hiyori took a deep breath, wondering how to proceed. Her sense of self demanded she make up for the wrong she had done, but she didn't want rumors about her being able to see ghosts spreading through the school. "I ... um ..." She thrust out two ten-thousand-yen bills. "This is for the mirror?"

'The mirror ...?" The little priestess pursed her lips, thinking. "The only mirror that comes to mind is the one that broke this morning, and that has nothing to do with you." She ignored the offered money.

"Give it to them for the mirror. And I hope you don't lose work because of it." She offered the money again. "Please, no questions." She gulped. "And please don't spread rumors about me."

"I would never spread rumors. The goddess would not approve." Again the girl didn't reach to take the money. "What do you have to do with the mirror?" Then she blinked, seeming startled, and closed her eyes though she continued to face Hiyori.

"Um ..." Hiyori got a nervous sensation in her stomach. "Please don't curse me," she begged, wondering if the little priestess could do that.

"The goddess doesn't curse people," the girl replied, eyes still closed. "She would turn away from me if I were to use her gifts for that." Her eyes opened. "How?"

"How?" Hiyori repeated, now the confused one.

"I would swear you were there, but you're not a spirit now, so how?" She reached out a nervous finger to poke Hiyori in the stomach. "You're real."

_Damn. She can distinguish between the spirits she senses like I can the gods by their smell. _Hiyori kept quiet, not knowing what to say.

The little priestess pointed at the seat across from her. "Sit."

Not sure if it was an order or a request, Hiyori sat down.

"What I can sense says you were there. What I can see says you weren't. Which do I believe?" The priestess shrugged. "But you clearly don't want to say so I won't press the matter." She leaned forward, brown eyes now sharp and demanding. "But why the bloody hell didn't the ritual work. I did it four blasted times and it failed each time?" Her expression demanded an answer.

"You won't spread rumors about me if I tell you?"

"Never," the girl promised.

Hiyori took a deep breath. "What you were trying to banish was just a reflection. The baby was lonely; she wanted someone to play with. When she saw herself in the mirror her wish to make that reflection a playmate created the phantom."

"Oh." The little priestess sat back, deep in thought. "Oh. I didn't know people could create spirits, or phantoms, or whatever."

"I saw you out walking this morning," Hiyori explained, blushing. "I wanted to see if you really could see spirits, so I checked. I had no right to do that. And I followed you into that house." She bowed her head. "I'm so sorry."

"You can see spirits?" the little priestess asked, almost sounding like a drowning woman gasping for breath. "By the way, I'm Eiko? You can see spirits?" The girl held her breath, clearing hopping for a yes.

"I'm Hiyori," Hiyori replied, keeping silent on the seeing spirits part.

"You're not a spirit?" Eiko cautiously reached out to poke Hiyori again.

"You said you wouldn't press the matter," Hiyori pointed out.

"I did." Eiko sighed. "That was dumb of me," she admitted. "As for testing me, I've done that at least a dozen times with people who claim they can either see or sense spirits. They were all fakes. It's not a big deal."

"You won't lose work because of it? You won't die of hunger and become a spectre and haunt me?"

"If anything, I'll get more work," Eiko replied, sounding relieved. "If I got to repeat the ritual I don't charge people the second time. It wasn't their fault I failed the first time. And now I know one of the reasons why it might fail. It's a big help." She sat back in her chair and looked down at the table. "I'd failed before and the spirit killed the child." Her eyes glazed over as she recalled the disaster her failure had caused. "At least I think it did. The child died and the mother was charged, but the mother wasn't evil; she would've never done that to the child she loved so much." Fists clenched and the girl uttered a sound of pure frustration, of agony.

Hiyori gasped. "Oh." She sat back in her own seat, thinking. "I'm sorry," she said a minute later. "The phantom can possess people. Usually it's the mother."

"Oh." Eiko didn't look up.

"This time it would've been the grandmother. That woman was the child's grandmother, right?"

Eiko nodded. "She lives with her daughter and looks after the child when her daughter is at work."

"Ah." Hiyori placed the two ten-thousand-yen bills on the table. "Is this enough to pay for the mirror?"

"Keep the money. I paid them back." Eiko shrugged, then returned to being quiet.

Hiyori waited, not wanting to leave while the girl was so despondent.

"And it happened again." Eiko still didn't look up.

"Again?" Hiyori asked quietly.

"Another job I had. I seem to fail a lot. I'm not so good at exorcising spirits, or so it would seem." The girl shook her head, attempting to shake off the gloom. Tears filled her eyes. "Actually, I know I suck at exorcisms."

"Oh?"

Eiko slipped from her seat. An instant later she was on the floor, bowing. "Help," she pleaded.

"I ... ah ..." Hiyori frantically reached down, forcefully pulled the girl up, and pushed her back into her seat. She glanced around to see if anyone had noticed. There were a ton of stares and she sighed. "No rumors, remember?"

"Sorry, but you know things I don't. Help, please," Eiko pleaded. She stared at Hiyori, her eyes a contract in misery and hope.

"I don't know anything ... well, not much ... about exorcisms," Hiyori replied, cringing, wondering what she'd gotten herself mixed up in. _Well, it can't be worse than being hunted by a goddess of war, _she decided. _Or, for that matter, having all my memories stolen. Or being locked in a cave while I wither away._

"I don't know much," Hiyori repeated, "just a few bits here and there that I've picked up." She took a deep breath. "But what was the job?"

Eiko pulled a sheathe of papers from her book bag. "Look," she said.

Hiyori glanced at the first page. It was a newspaper clipping that read: Student Commits Suicide at School.

Eiko reached over and flipped the page. "Look," she said again.

Hiyori studied the second article: Second Student Commits Suicide at School.

Eiko continued to flip the pages. There were five articles in all, each mentioning a suicide. "That's my old school," she started to explain, voice quivering. "I switched here because it's closer home, but the principal there is a true believer in the gods so he asked me to look into it. All the investigators say suicide, but there's something off about the place." She took a deep breath. "It's scary, and I don't know what's going on there. Exorcisms are usually small spirits which I can mostly handle. But this is big, and ... I don't know what to do. People are dying." She took another deep breath. "If you don't know anything then that's okay, but if you could look at the place ... Please."

Hiyori looked at the girl, wondering just what she meant by scary. "Have any five-yen coins?" she asked.

"Why?" Eiko asked, but she searched her purse and slid over a coin.

"An offering, if we need it." Hiyori answered. "Guess we're cutting classes."

The school wasn't far away, no more than fifteen minutes walk.

There are six orphanages within two miles of this place," Eiko explained as they approached the school gates. "The people from them mostly attend this school. It's supposed to have more counselors and help for the students if they need it. And with a common background, of sorts, it's supposed to support cohesion, stop bullying. It used to work, but lately the whole system has been falling apart. From what the principal has told me the bullying rate has skyrocketed. People are doing drugs and ..."

Hiyori looked at the school entrance. It was just a plain white building, not too different from most others, with a large stretch of green grass scattered with see-saws and swings. There was a court for sports over in one far corner of the school grounds. Nothing out of the ordinary. She frowned, sensing the Gloom that came from the place.

"You can sense it too, can't you?" Eiko said, glancing at her schoolmate. "A month ago this was a pretty cool school; now it's downright depressing. It's scary."

"It's certainly scary, alright," Hiyori admitted. _Soon as I see the phantom that's causing all this, I'll call Yato, _she decided. Her borderlines might handle a mouse-sized phantom, but this wasn't going to a mouse. "See-saws?" she asked.

"The school has support for elementary and junior high students," Eiko explained. "The kids who died, I won't say it was suicide, were between the ages of six and ten." She stopped walking to turn and look at Hiyori. "Six-year old kids don't commit suicide," she stated firmly, fury burning in her eyes. "The investigators said suicide, but the autopsy reports all said massive organ failure – cause unknown." She shrugged. "There were trace amounts of drugs in their systems, so they, the investigators, eventually decided on intentional drug overdoses leading to death, hence the suicide ruling."

"Why intentional? Why not accidental?"

"The principal is a great guy, but the school board ..." Eiko looked down. "They're not always the greatest. I think they agreed on intentional for legal reasons. The school might've been held accountable if the ruling had been that it was accidental."

"Oh."

They took their first steps onto school grounds and Hiyori stopped cold in her tracks. "Holy crap," she whispered. Is there a vent nearby?"

"A vent?"

"Never mind." Hiyori forced herself to take another step, then another. Cold shudders ran down her back while her shirt grew damp from sweat.

"Like I said, scary," Eiko repeated. "So, you can see or sense something too." It wasn't a question.

Hiyori nodded. "Have you seen a pink-haired girl, our age, followed by a large scary man around here lately?" she asked, attempting to joke? "He likes to watch children."

"A predator?"

"Um, never mind, insider joke." She pulled at the back of her shirt, peeling the damp material away from her flesh.

"Sure the school sometimes has problems with those types," Eiko admitted. "But not lately. At least not that I know off. Many of these kids are extremely vulnerable to that sort of thing, being from an orphanage and all. Lots of people see them as easy prey. But the principal makes sure we're all well prepared for that sort of thing."

Hiyori glanced over at the girl, recalling that she said she'd attended this place, and now used the inclusive word, _we, _when talking about the kids. _Oh, _she thought and forced the irrelevant piece of data out of her mind. Then she saw the first students.

"Hey, little priestess," a girl of maybe eight called out. "You're here again." She ran up to Eiko to give her a hug.

"Hey," a boy of maybe nine said, giving Hiyori a glance before he flashed a smile at Eiko. The smile was tired and forced.

Another boy, maybe eight, remained silent in the background, looking sullen and hostile.

Hiyori froze at the sight she saw. The boy in the background was blighted. She was sure it was the blight, though she had no idea how a kid like him came to be so afflicted. Her only time had been when she'd touched Yato, a god who'd been stung many times by his regalia. Phantoms could possess people, that she knew, but blight them? She shuddered at what the poor child must be suffering. Three frog-like creature rode the boy's shoulders.

She studied the other boy and girl. There was no sign of the blight on them, but the girl carried a frog-like creature on her head while the boy carried a small, green bat with too many eyes to count on his right shoulder. The bat stared back at her as she stared at it, causing a sense of panic.

"Hey, Elly." Eiko returned the hug. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I ... um ..." The girl tap the ground with the tip of her left shoe.

Eiko laughed. "Cutting class, huh? Better get back. You never know when there'll be a surprise quiz." She patted the girl on the head.

"You know her?" Hiyori asked, voice strained, as she watched the three kids run off.

"Nah. But they all seem to know me for some reason. Her name is about all I know about her."

"Oh."

"There was something wrong with her, wasn't there? I can't tell what exactly; it's not like she was possessed or anything, at least not yet, but ..."

Hiyori nodded. "With all three of them." She studied the school building, wondering what she would see when they got inside. _If the first three people I saw were ... like that ... then just how many phantoms are there? _"Do we have permission to be on school grounds?" she asked.

"I do, and it's okay if I bring someone with me."

"Oh, okay then. Shall we continue?" Hiyori reluctantly asked, unconsciously clenching and unclenching her right hand in a nervous gesture.

"Sure." Eiko led the way with Hiyori a step behind her.

Is wasn't as bad as Hiyori had expected. No, not every child had a phantom riding on his or her shoulder, nor their head. Not all, just about half. "How many kids at this school?"

"Around eighteen hundred."

That gave Hiyori pause. "That many, all orphans?"

"Not all are orphans. Kids living close to the school sometimes attend here as well." Eiko explained. 'I would guess maybe a little over half are orphans."

"Oh." She looked around, studying the few students in the hallways. Stepping close to a doorway, she peered in at the students. Turning away, she walked thirty feet down one hallway to look in a window, searching the kids within for more of the phantoms.

"You're sweating like crazy?" Eiko noted.

"I am," Hiyori admitted.

"You're white as a ghost."

"Don't know of any white ghosts," Hiyori slowly replied, not taking her eyes away from the window into hell. "But I am," she admitted again.

"Is it that scary? I feel like screaming and running out, but," Eiko shrugged, "not sure what you can see or sense."

"No exorcism is going to work here," Hiyori replied, finally peeling her eyes away from the window. "But I sure am spooked."

"Tell me, what does your goddess think about you asking for help from other gods?" She rubbed the five-yen coin between two fingers, but her instincts said, 'not yet.' To be on the safe side, she did pull out her phone and made sure the speed dial she had for Yato was just a button's press away.

"Are the other gods real?" Eiko asked, sounding doubtful.

"You're sure your goddess is real, right?"

"Yeah, but I can feel her presence at times. I've never felt any of the others."

"Oh." Hiyori sighed. "Don't suppose your goddess is someone like Bishamon. You know, a super-powerful god of war? Cause that's what we need here."

"Ianuaria is a Celtic goddess," Eiko explained. "Not sure how she came to have a temple here, but she's a goddess of healing, not battle."

Hiyori sighed again and glanced at her phone. Her thumb was lightly resting on the speed-dial for Yato, but a nagging suspicious at the back of her mind said pressing it would be bad. Slowly, with deep regret, she moved her thumb off the button.

"This way," Eiko said, and Hiyori reluctantly followed.

"This is where the first death took place," Eiko added, leading the way into a girl's bathroom. "She was found on the floor, arms and legs spread out." The girl gulped and looked at Hiyori. "You don't need me to demonstrate the position, do you?" Her eyes begged Hiyori to say no.

"No." Hiyori shuddered and pulled her arms around herself in a vain attempt to ward off the chill that now permeated her whole being. There were larger phantoms, perhaps the size of small dog, in the room – all regarding the two of them with frighteningly hostile eyes of pure, ravenous hunger. "Come on," she said, grabbing Eiko by the hand to pull her out.

The little priestess led the way down a hallway for maybe a hundred feet, then turned left. During the dreadful walk Hiyori counted five small murals on the walls, each depicting a cheering gang of kids at play and study. In the Gloom they seemed so out of place that they made the place seem surreal. She shuddered again, and struggled in vain to stop shivering.

"You okay?" Eiko asked, looking at her new friend with worry.

"No." Hiyori looked at the door she'd been led to. It was a boy's bathroom.

"The second suicide was in there," Eiko explained, knocking on the door. She pushed it open and, red faced, she entered.

_Oh boy_, Hiyori thought, _just the reason I wanted to get to see the boy's bathroom: mass killings._ She followed the girl inside.

Instinctive Hiyori grabbed Eiko and violently pulled her outside with a savage jerk. "Walk," she commanded, "don't run," she then whispered.

"What's wrong ..." Eiko started to speak.

"Dumb teachers and dumb tests," Hiyori snarled loudly, drowning out whatever Eiko had been about to say. "They think we have nothing to do but studying. The heck with them all."

"Hiyo..."

Hiyori crushed the hand she was holding, giving another violent tug as she did so. "Let's cut class," she said loudly, knowing the ruse wouldn't work with their uniforms being out-of-place. Her heart was racing at two-hundred beats a minute, at the very least. Desperately she wanted to reach for her phone, but the hand she was using to pull Eiko was the one she needed to reach it. "Damn," she muttered under her breath. "Damn, damn, damn."

"Hiyo..."

"In a desperate move to shut the girl up, Hiyori twisted her around and pushed her against the wall hard, causing Eiko to gasp in shock and pain.

"Sto..." she started to yell.

"Hiyori leaned close and pressed her lips against the girl's." To her relief the girl's eyes opened wide, but she made no sound. She stared back at those startled brown eyes with her own, hoping to communicate the dire straits the two of them were in.

With a third set of eyes peering at them it wasn't a quick kiss. Rather Hiyori kept the contact going for a good thirty seconds before she broke contact and slid her lips close to the girl's left ear. "Quiet," she whispered, hoping the third set of ears that were lingering all too close didn't hear. "

Keeping hold of the now silent girl's hand, she pulled her away from the wall and headed for the exit. "Let's head someplace where we can be alone," she suggested, hoping they would pass as being girlfriends. Sure, she wasn't into that, but she thought Eiko had been just a little too accepting of the kiss, a little too enthusiastic. _Hope she has enough enthusiasm for both of us, _Hiyori mused, all too aware of the man that followed them. A man she knew to be dead. A man who might recognize her name.

Outside, still holding her pretend girlfriend's hand, she made a beeline away from the school. As they left the Gloom that shadowed the area, their dead follower silently turned away to return to that accursed place.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: Immediately following the previous chapter._

After the school faded out of sight, Hiyori let go of Eiko's hand. "Sorry," she said, speaking barely above a whisper. "You wouldn't be quiet and … well …." She had no way to explain what she'd seen, or what it might mean. She wasn't sure herself.

"You saw something?"

Hiyori gave a panicked laugh. "Oh yeah. I'm really sorry about the kiss," she added. "I know what an unwanted kiss is like, and with us both being girls it must've been so much worse." She gulped. "I'm really really sorry."

"No problem," Eiko said, brushing the issue aside with little more than a blush and eyes that were far too bright. "What did you see?"

Hiyori ignored the question. "Does your goddess mind if you call on other gods?"

"I'm not sure. Why? Can you do that? Call on other gods?"

"Oh sure." She flashed a quick smile at the girl. "Of course it all depends on how much you're willing to pay. Can get one on the cheap, but I'm not sure if he'd be the best for this job."

"Why not? What would be wrong with him?"

Hiyori went deep in thought for a moment, wondering why her instincts said not to call Yato right away. _Because rushing in is the wrong thing to do, _she decided, a_nd that's exactly what he would do – rush in._ _There must be two-thousand phantoms in that place, not to mention those _…. Pushing the thought aside, she turned back to her friend. "We need advice, and I think I know where to get it. This is beyond me, and from what I can tell it's beyond you."

"Advice? There's someone who can explain more about spirits?" Eiko frowned. "And who would know more about what's going on at my old school?"

"There's always someone who knows more," Hiyori answered with a grin. "By the way, this is going to be a long day."

"Which god do you follow?"

Hiyori paused for a moment. "It's not that I'm a follower of any of them," she finally said. "But I do believe in them, and there are some that seem pretty nice, cool even."

They arrived at Tenjin's shrine to find it nearly empty.

"There's no one here," Eiko stated, looking across the expanse of the empty shrine. "Who were you going to ask?"

"Guess with all the students in school it does seem a bit empty," Hiyori admitted. "But there's always someone here." She searched the ground with her eyes, peering into every shadow.

"Mayu," she called out, yelling the greeting to one of Tenjin's regalia, the regalia who just happened to be an ex-regalia of Yato.

"Hiyori," the woman greeted back, smiling, rising from where she'd been resting in the shade. "It's good to see you. How's Yato doing? Has Yukine left him yet?"

Eiko gave a small jump, sure the woman hadn't been there a moment before. "Hello," she said and received a nod back.

"The same," Hiyori said with a sigh. "He doesn't change. But he and Yukine get along great." She grinned. "Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm old enough to listen to all the potty-mouth language that goes on between them though."

Mayu laughed. "He's a good guy," she admitted of Yato. "I think it's just that he's been roughing it so long that he forgets how it feels. Even if they like to eat, gods have never required food. Spirits on the other hand have the desire, a psychological need for food."

Hiyori nodded. "I need help," she stated simply.

The regalia raised an eyebrow. "You're in more trouble?" she asked, looking incredulous.

"I'm not, but there's a situation I wanted to ask Tenjin about."

"And her?" Mayu nodded at Eiko.

"She's the one who came to me with the problem." Hiyori shrugged, knowing Mayu would want details before she reported to Tenjin. Even gods, she knew, liked to rest at times.

"I just walked through a school," she started. "A school with around two-thousand phantoms riding on the students' shoulders, or following them."

"Two tho…." Mayu blanched. "A minute," she said, disappearing.

"Huh?" Eiko looked around, seeing no place where the woman could have hid.

"Dear lady," said an oldish man with a slight beard, "I do believe the current formal education system is failing the current generation of students."

Hiyori gave a slight bow. "I'm sure it is failing some," she admitted. "But I looked in three classrooms for a total of maybe ninety students. There was an average of one per student. There are eighteen-hundred students at the school. Then there were the ones wandering around. Then there were the ones in the bathrooms were the students died." She firmed her voice. "If that was typical of the whole school, then I'm pretty sure it was at least two thousand."

"I see." The man twirled his beard around his left index finger. "That's quite troublesome."

Hiyori lowered her voice. "A number of the student were blighted."

The twirling stopped. "Humans very rarely get blighted?" he assured the girl. "You were mistaken." The words were the pronouncement of a god.

Hiyori raised an eyebrow and stared back.

"Maybe you were mistaken?" Tenjin suggested, sounding hopeful.

"I've seen it enough times now to know," Hiyori answered with a sad smile. "I saw at least three students with it, one up-close. If that holds true for the whole school then maybe sixty in all."

She took a deep breath. "And there were human spirits there," she added. "I think they were regalia or ex-regalia."

"How would you know if they were regalia."

Hiyori looked Tenjin in the eye, took a deep breath, and exclaimed,"Because Kugaha was there. The ex-regalia of Bishamon." She closed her eyes and shuddered, recalling having looked in through the door of the boy's bathroom and having seen him there, standing on a floor thick with malevolent and squirming phantoms, thankfully with his back turned. But with the stump of his hand being held up there'd been no doubt. She'd fled and he hadn't turned around, but another of the human spirits had spotted them and followed. And Eiko had refused to shut up.

Hiyori opened her eyes to find herself shivering, sitting on the ground, her arms wrapped around herself. "And yes, I'm sure it was him," she answered Tenjin's next question. "So what do we do?"

"Regalia? Kugaha?" Eiko asked, looking confused as she surveyed the now not-so-empty shrine. But she couldn't recall any of the people having arrived. She shook her head while her eyes glazed over as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

"Have you told Bishamon yet?"

"No, I decided to seek advice first."

Tenjin smiled. "How wise. Young lady, despite your oftentimes reckless actions, I do believe you are not totally beyond help."

"So, what do we do?" Hiyori stood back up and dusted off her skirt. "Children are dying there."

"An ablution, one on a grand scale."

Hiyori froze, recalling Yukine's ablution. "You would torture hundreds of children!" she exclaimed, horrified. "That's ….." She shook her head, ready to argue, but feeling faint.

"They wouldn't feel anything," Tenjin assured the girl comfortingly. "It merely means it's a purification ritual. The children would be unharmed. A borderline would be created around the school while the gods would enter, purify and bless the school grounds. The problem lies with the size of the area to be purified. You would need at least ten regalia to create the borderline around the school. Exterminating two-thousand phantoms would also require more than one god. Since we're talking about a school with school children, I will be one of the five gods you need."

"Five?"

Tenjin nodded. "I will leave it up to you to gather four more." He glanced at Eiko. "Since she is the one who came to you with the request, her goddess should be one of the five. What is her name?"

"Ianuaria," Eiko said, promptly supplying the name. "Will she hate me for talking to other gods?" The girl's lip trembled.

"No. She's not the jealous type. It would severely disrespect her though if she were not included in the process. Pray at her shrine. As a goddess of healing, who I happen to know loves children, she will be willing to be one of the five."

Eiko gulped. "I can pray, but ….." she made a gesture of helplessness with her hand. "I feel her sometimes, but she doesn't appear to me. Not like this." She gestured again, pointing at Tenjin and the regalia. "I'm not certain ….."

"Never doubt your goddess, young lady. She is very kind and gracious. Pray at her shrine and she will hear you. You are, after all, one of her priestess. She will handle the rest."

Eiko nodded.

He turned back to Hiyori. "Her goddess is capable of great feats of healing. Between her and me, when the ritual begins we will be capable of cleansing the children of any blight they may have." He frowned. "What other three gods will you call upon?"

"Bishamon would have to be one of them," Hiyori answered, deep in thought, considering her limited options. "It would disrespect her as well since Kugaha is one of her ex-regalia. For the other two, I think, maybe Yato and Kofuku."

"Ahem," Tenjin gave a little cough. "Young lady, I just said you might not be beyond all hope, but surely involving Kofuku in this would be a disaster. She would …." His eyes glazed over and the god of learning turned white. "Please reconsider," he begged.

"The thing with gods," Hiyori explained, "is they charge so much. My debt to Kofuku is already a million yen, but anyone else would charge me an arm and a leg, and then demand my head."

Tenjin nodded. "Just be glad I'm giving you a hundred-percent discount. My prices for such a thing are usually …." He smiled. "You don't want to hear the price, trust me. But as I said, this is a school, and I am the god of learning. They're my people."

Hiyori turned to Eiko. "Guess you should go to your goddess and ask her."

Eiko nodded, looked around, and walked off looking like she was in shock.

"Will she remember you?"

"No," Tenjin replied. "Having seen the gods her faith will be reinforced, but the details of the memory will fade. She's not connected to the far shore in the same manner that you are. It is enough that she will pray, and Ianuaria will answer her prayers. She is a goddess of healing, and the girl is one of the very rare people who can channel the goddess' power. As such, she can make almost any request of her goddess and have the prayer answered."

"Oh."

"I would ask for more than five gods," Tenjin said, staring at the sky in thought. "If there are regalia there, then we might also have to fight other gods. Still, Bishamon is the goddess of war, and at her peak is truly fearsome. Yato is also quite competent in a fight. Remind both of them not to include the regalia they need to fight at their best in those who create the borderline."

"I will."

"If you had rushed to call on Yato, then he would've been forced to meet those phantoms along with the gods of those regalia in battle." Tenjin stroked his beard. "That would not have ended well. I would say you have good instincts, but ..." The man sighed. "To think you wish to include Kofuku in this. I will need to talk to my insurance broker before we do the purification." He looked around the shrine. "Do you have any idea what the insurance rates are on a place like this? Or on a school? That Ebisu is more a god of thievery than wealth."

An hour later Hiyori approached the shrine of Bishamon, the one where she'd once desperately begged for help with Yukine's ablution. Despite the price he knew he would have to pay, Kazuma had answered her plea and Yukine had been saved. She might fear the goddess he served, but her debt to the regalia was beyond measure. He was the one she would call out to, and hope that as before Bishamon didn't show.

_First thing first, though, _she thought, cringing as she made an offering of a thousand-yen bill. _Let's try to start things off on the right foot. _ _And let's hope she doesn't charge me an arm, a leg, and my head for this._

"KAZUMA," she screamed, causing nearby worshippers to look at the crazy girl with a hint of fear. _Well, Bishamon may be a goddess of war, but some of her followers are wusses,' _Hiyori noted, slightly amused, as she watched mothers herd their children away from her. 'KAZUMA," she again shrieked, putting all she had into the shout.

'Ahem."

Hiyori swiveled around, relieved to see Kazuma there, thankfully alone.

Kazuma pulled out a notebook and scribbled in it. "Reminder to get insurance covering sonic damage from …." He glanced at Hiyori. "From hysterical, screaming, teenage girls." He closed the book and looked up. "Not the sort of insurance we usual need, but it might be time to upgrade." He closed his eyes and gave a deep sigh of frustration. "You have any idea what Ebisu charges for damage from too loud teenage girls?"

"An arm, a leg, and a head?" Hiyori asked.

'About right." Kazuma grinned at her. "What disaster brings you here today?"

"Kugaha," Hiyori simply stated.

"Oh." Kazuma looked around and sighed in relief when Bishamon didn't appear. "Tell me everything," he told the girl.

Hiyori talked, feeling relaxed around the blessed regalia. As far as interrogations went he made it much less painful than if Bishamon had been the one doing the questioning. "So?" she finally asked.

"The usual price is ten-million yen," Kazuma started.

Hiyori sank to the ground.

"But since this does concern Kugaha, we will waive the fee," Kazuma finished.

"How can you tell when a god is close by?" Bishamon demanded, appearing a step behind her regalia. Her eyes peered into those of Hiyori, causing the girl who was still sitting on the ground to feel faint. "And you visit my shrine after running away from me?" Those ever so beautiful, divine eyes glinted wrathfully.

Hiyori looked at Kazuma, pleading for help.

"We saw you running around earlier," he explained. "We wanted to speak with you, yet each time we headed your way you dropped down to where we couldn't see you, and then you ran off." He raised an eyebrow. "You can clearly see gods when you shouldn't be able to. See them with more than just your eyes that is."

"I …. Um …. Talk with me?"

"We wanted a human perspective on an issue. And since you're still human."

"Oh. Ask away."

"As you know, the previous system within Bishamon's caste involved a lot of fake smiles and bearing pain in solitude. It's something we wish to change?" He looked at Bishamon, then back at Hiyori. "Would creating a sports team be a good move?"

"I don't know. I don't think so?"

Bishamon's unwavering glare demanded more.

"In sports you're going to have glory hogs," Hiyori tried to explain. "That would cause resentment. You want something more inclusive, like maybe a play?"

"A play?"

Hiyori nodded. "Like a school play where you can get everyone involved. There would still be glory hogs, but less so. Nor would there be the divide that would exist between a losing versus winning sports team."

"Humph." Bishamon clearly didn't like the answer.

"Enough, Bishamon," Kazuma said, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "You're scaring someone who has done us no harm." He smiled fondly at the woman. "Hiyori isn't an evil to be smite."

The woman blinked and the hostility vanished. "Why is a follower of the Yato god at my shrine?" she asked in a more relaxed tone.

"I don't worship Yato," Hiyori exclaimed, cringing at the thought. "I do believe in you gods, obviously, but I wouldn't say I'm a follower of any."

"And I have spent the last thirty minutes questioning her, Veena," Kazuma said. "I will explain everything." He looked Hiyori's way. "But for now she should be going. She has to find two more gods for the ceremony. If Kofuku is one of them, then may the heavens help us."

Hiyori took a step back and walked from the shrine, trying not to look shaken after her encounter with the woman who had broken, killed, Yukine. At least the goddess had tried. If Yukine had not evolved into a blessed regalia her friend would have died. Then the woman would have killed Yato.

"Evening," Daikoku said as Hiyori entered Kofuku's Sake and Oden shop. "Be careful of the floor."

"What's wrong with the floor? Didn't Yato ….." Hiyori went flying, falling headfirst on her face. "What?" she started to ask, trying to stand. She slipped again. As she looked down at the floor she quite clearly saw herself staring back up, a shocked expression on her face.

"Yeah, he cleaned the floors, alright," Daikoku muttered. "And polished them – twice."

"Oh." Hiyori stood again, taking great care not to slip. "At least he did one of his chores," she said brightly.

"You know what the insurances rates are for a place like this," Daikoku asked, "with Kofuku being the owner and all?"

"An arm, a leg, and a head?"

"About right," Daikoku admitted. "Do you know what having seven customers slip off the toilet does to those insurance rates?"

"Slip …." Hiyori looked towards the shop section of the building. "Oh …." she added.

"Yeah. Yato _cleaned _the bathroom," Daikoku informed her. "He also polished every freaking surface in there. You can't even turn on the faucet it's so bloody polished."

"Oh." Hiyori didn't know what else to say. She went to sit down and her butt immediately started to throb as she slipped from the chair to land on the floor, hard. "Ow."

"He insisted on doing the job properly," Daikoku told the aching girl. "He really insisted. It's all for Hiyori, he said. Do you know how hard it is to place a bowl of oden on a table that bastard has polished?"

"Impossible?" Hiyori hazarded a guess.

"About right," Daikoku muttered viciously.

"Um, would now be a good time to ask for a favor?" Hiyori asked, only to be glared at.

With children involved it took only seconds for her to convince Daikoku of the proper course of action. With further pleading he even agreed she should receive a student discount, adding a _mere_ five-hundred thousand yen to her debt.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: Next day, 10am._

Hiyori, in spirit form, stood atop a building little more than several hundred meters from the phantom-filled school of horror that she'd walked through the day before. Around her there was gathered a small army of regalia and five gods. Most of the regalia were that of Tenjin and Bishamon.

Ianuaria, a goddess of healing, stood to one side, doing little to intermingle with the group. Shoulder-length dark-reddish hair with green eyes were her only distinguishing features. She'd bought two regalia, twin girls of about ten years who were dressed in plain, white smocks liberally streaked with what Hiyori thought might be grass strains. Ianuaria herself wore a dress of pure white with no ornamental decorations at all. While the goddess did little to socialize, her regalia seemed to take great delight in talking with others of their own apparent age.

Kofuku was running around giving hugs to all those who failed to evade her attention. Daikoku, like a jealous boyfriend, was close behind, valiantly trying to stop the pink-haired messenger of disaster.

In one corner of the rooftop, Yato and Yukine stood talking with Bishamon and Tenjin. With a walk that was more leaps and bounds, Hiyori headed over to eavesdrop. She knew this was a place where she wasn't welcomed, and also knew that like the proverbial cat her curiosity would probably be the end of her one day.

"Young lady, why are you not out chasing boys?" Tenjin demanded. "This is no place for those of the living world."

"The students in there are living," Hiyori pointed out. "And they're involved. It definitely concerns the living world."

"Yesterday she was busy seducing one of my priestess," Ianuaria said, finally speaking up in the worst possible way, giving the subject of discussion a lingering, scrutinizing look.

Tenjin blinked. "Well, out chasing girls then."

"That I can explain," Hiyori insisted, blushing. "I had the do that to … well … you see …."

"Overwhelming hormones?" Tenjin inquired.

"No," Hiyori exclaimed.

"Pure-hearted, puppy love?" he wondered aloud, again stroking his beard.

"No, no, …." Hiyori vainly protested.

"Come to think of, she and Kofuku made out once," Yato interjected.

"We did not," Hiyori shrieked.

"So you were two-timing Kofuku while you were making out with my priestess?" Ianuaria growled.

"I'm not dating either of them," Hiyori gulped, shrinking away from the fury in those fiery, dark-green eyes. A large, heavy hand grasped her shoulder.

"What this about making out with my Kofuku, then two-timing her?" Daikoku snarled.

"Hiyori," Kofuku yelped, clinging to the girl in a manner very suggestive of a lover's embrace. "What's this about you two-timing me?"

_Curious cat meets curious end, _Hiyori thought, staring pass a mass of pink hair, seeking one last glimpse of the blue, morning sky before the heavens tore her asunder.

"Ahem," Bishamon said, interrupting the curious cat's ill-fated demise. "The longer we're gathered here, the more opportunities we offer our enemies to spot us If this is to be a surprise attack, we should move at once."

Kazuma stepped forward. "We have nine regalia to form the borderline with. While not optimal, this is all we can manage. Those nine will maintain the border while Bishamon and Yato enter to slaughter the phantoms."

The regalia turned towards Ianuaria. "While inside those two will pull fire alarms, requiring everyone within the buildings to exit. At that time you and Tenjin will work together to cure any blight you may see."

"Won't the phantoms leave the school with the children?" Hiyori dared to ask. "And do phantoms ever run away? If they scatter …." The girl went quiet under the combined stares of Tenjin, Kazuma and Bishamon.

"I believe Ianuaria and Tenjin will use rain to remove the blight," Kazuma explained to the shock-still girl. "Tenjin will conjure a brief rain shower, while Ianuaria will bless the water. Most phantoms will hesitate the step out into blessed water, but a number of them will when the cleansing starts. That is what the borderline is for. Very few of the phantoms will escape. Those that do won't do it through the rain, but through hiding."

"Oh." Hiyori gulped, wisely deciding not to draw any further wrathful stares from Bishamon.

"The problem," Bishamon said, turning away from a grateful Hiyori, "is if there are truly regalia inside, and if the gods they serve intervene. That is something we will have to deal with when it arises."

"And my job?" Kofuku asked, sounding all too cheerful.

"Is to stay out of trouble," Bishamon stated, sternly emphasizing the word trouble. "And don't go opening any vents. You don't fight, understood? You don't move from this spot!"

"Waaa, Bishamon is angry with me Hiyori," Kofuku wailed, burying her face against the girl's shoulder, clinging desperately to her.

Bishamon's jaw dropped.

Daikoku stepped forward to peel his goddess away from Hiyori. "Kofuku, as lovable as you are, and as much as we all love you, we also all know what you are a goddess of, so it would only be prudent that you not go near the school." The words were gently spoken by the regalia.

"We don't want any disasters," Bishamon said, speaking softly this time. "I'm sorry, Kofuku, but it's for the best." She looked fondly at the goddess.

"We move now," Kazuma said, stepping forward again. "All the regalia forming the borderline get into position."

Hiyori tried to stay out of the way as the rooftop suddenly churned into mayhem, and then became much emptier. Ianuaria called two names and her regalia became a branch laden with berries in her left hand, and a slim wooden staff in her right. Neither looked as if they'd been made for battle. Yato called forth a single name and Yukine became twin blades in the hands of the god. Tenjin called forth a single name as well, but Hiyori wasn't sure what his regalia had become. Bishamon called for Kazuma, and he became a cherry-blossom earring. Calling out two more names, twin guns appeared in her hands. The woman, a goddess of war, was already wearing regalia in the form of armor. Missing was the lion that was usually by her side, gone to help with the borderline wall.

"Borderline," Bishamon yelled, her voice echoing across the rooftop, even reaching the nearby school where a wall of light flared and shot skywards, reaching several meters in height. "Attack," she bellowed, and she and Yato raced toward the school.

Kofuku sniffed, wiped at her eyes, and watched them. "I wanted to help to."

"You are," Daikoku told her, ruffling her hair. "The ritual calls for five, and here you are. Without you those children would've suffered much longer."

Hiyori peered across the distance, wishing she too could help, but she knew the ability to form ever-so-weak borderlines and sucker punch giants frogs wouldn't be of much help. Only gods of battle and their regalia could hope to survive midst the furor that was about to erupt in that school. Even Tenjin and Ianuaria were doing their work from a distance, safely standing in midair well above the school where the chaos wouldn't reach them.

"Why five?" she asked Daikoku. Only he and Kofuku were left on the rooftop with her.

"Bureaucracy," he replied. "I'm sure before the incident Bishamon would've had enough regalia to form both the borderline and to attack. But even she would've been hard pressed alone in there. It's a way to keep dumb gods from doing dumb things."

"Oh."

From the distance came the ringing of bells, fire-alarms. Mere seconds later the first students poured from the building.

Hiyori looked at the cloudless sky.

"Tenjin can make it rain," Kofuku explained, eyes not wavering from the school, but all that's called for here is a brief shower. He'll wait until the school is empty before he starts."

"Oh," Hiyori said again. It was a full five minutes before the last of the students exited the building. Then the heavens opened up to pour down rain in a heavy, though brief outpouring. In all the rain lasted for maybe a minute, yet such was its force that she knew every student below now had to be soaked to the bone.

"I can't hear the fighting," she said five minutes later, staring at sky that was now blue again. There wasn't a cloud in sight.

"It's too far," Daikoku patiently informed the girl. "Inside the building with just rat-sized phantoms, they won't be making much noise. At least not enough to be heard here."

"Those regalia, they didn't ask for the help of their gods?" Hiyori said after five more minutes of silence. She'd started to tap her foot nervously on the asphalt rooftop.

"Maybe the regalia weren't in there," Kofuku told her. "They could've been strays acting on their own, or not regalia at all." She gave a deep sigh as she stared longingly at the school.

"How long will it take? Shouldn't they be finished by now?" Hiyori asked after another five minutes of waiting in silence.

"They got a thousand each to kill," Daikoku told her patiently. "It's going to take a while. Nor will all the phantoms be in plain sight."

"I hate not being able to help." This time is was Kofuku speaking after another five minutes of silence had past.

"Me too," Hiyori said. "But at least if none of the regalia summoned their masters, it should be an easy fight for them, right?"

"Never underestimate your opponent," Daikoku said. His eyes too never left the school building. "After all, we don't know who was behind this, or why."

"True," Kofuku said, agreeing with her regalia. "But I hope they have an easy time of it."

One second there was an orderly group of dripping-wet students standing in an orderly fashion, all safely held within a borderline maintained by nine regalia. There was no sign of danger. Then five savage, snarling wolf-like creatures, all bearing a plain, white mask painted with a single black eye burst from the building. They headed straight for the regalia holding the barrier.

"Damn," Daikoku cursed. "Stay here," he commanded Kofuku, then he was running for the school.

Hiyori followed, racing to keep up with the regalia.

"Get back," the man commanded, not turning around. He raised two fingers and a bright, crescent-shaped burst of light slashed into one of the phantoms. It wavered, yet after a second's pause lunged brutally at a young woman regalia who'd been holding part of the borderline. Another invocation disintegrated the attacking creature into a mass of blackness that evaporated like mist into the air.

Around the borderline there were screams, but even as they were assaulted, the regalia followed their masters' wishes; the wall held.

Hiyori met one of the beasts with a savage kick, yelling out "Jungle Savate," as she did so. The creature flew a dozen feet back from the regalia it'd been about to viciously maul, yet moved in a flash to meet its attacker.

_Well, it's distracted, _Hiyori gulped, jumping back several feet. The creature swiftly followed, so Hiyori snapped a kick to its throat. That drove it back three feet, then it lunged forward again. _Oh crap! _The girl silently muttered to herself.

She took another leap back with the phantom promptly following. Rapid and agile, it twisted around to bite at her tail. Barely, by mere milliseconds, she flexed the tail and moved it out of reach of the all too real looking jaws, flinching as they clamped shut with an audible snap.

Hiyori spun around, hoping to meet the phantom head on; she failed. Unhesitating, it raced around her to once again lunge for the tail as if it knew it was her weakness. "Stop that," she screamed at the beast. For the briefest of seconds it stopped to stare, as if listening. Then it leapt for her throat.

Falling back on the ground, Hiyori twisted, trying to smash the beast on the ground. By a stroke of luck, her hands had managed to grasp the creature's snout just before its jaws once again snapped shut, inches from her throat. Strangely clawless, five-toed paws racked at her, but they were puny things compared to the teeth that sought her life blood.

Moving as if by instinct, Hiyori left her hands slip from the muzzle that was so terrifyingly close to grab the mask. The beast's own lunge tore the mask, still gripped in the girl's desperate hands, from its face. It evaporated before her eyes, but not before she saw what led beneath the mask.

Hiyori yelped, shocked and disbelieving at what she saw. Some of the evaporating mist filled her mouth, then she was gasping and choking on the ground.

With an iron-strength of will, she forced herself to her feet, seeing that another of the beasts was close, that in the struggle with the now dead beast she'd moved within feet of another regalia. The tall man's eyes were glazed over, showing him to be clearly in shock, while his back was a mass of bloodless wounds that would've fell any but the staunches of men. He stood on one leg, the other having been gnawed halfway off. Corruption had started to eat into the open wounds.

Moving with all the speed her aching body could muster, Hiyori moved in to snap a kick at the attacking beast. As before, it seemed it was all too willing to leave the regalia alone to focus on her. She jumped away, moving around the borderline with it in pursuit. She knew how to fight it, even knew how to kill it, yet she found she couldn't bring herself to murder the creature.

Then a crescent blast of energy ripped into the beast and it died.

"Those were the children," she shrieked in anquish, staring at Daikoku as if he could bring them back. "Those were the children that died in that school."

"I know" the man replied, eyes moist with unwept tears. "I know. I saw under the masks too."

"Kofuku," they then said together. Racing back to their watch point they were grateful to find the goddess hadn't moved from her spot. However, the frustration and panic on her face told them they'd made it back just in time to keep her out of the mess, to keep it from being a total disaster.

Somehow the savaged regalia held the borderline, and soon the fight moved to the school grounds. Having slaughtered all the phantoms inside, Yato and Bishamon sought to eradicate the few hundred that'd fled to the outside. The borderline held them, and inside it they all died. Then the job was done.

Two of the regalia had been wounded, one seriously. Daikoku had managed to kill two before they'd reached their target. Hiyori had handled a third. The other two had managed to attack and blight their targets, but not to the point where they'd fallen or been possessed. Ianuaria had cleansed the blight, however the man Hiyori had saved, a regalia of Bishamon, would never be whole again.

A fearful Hiyori had expected the goddess of battle to be wrathful, to seek justice. It was after all she who'd called on the goddess for the job. She'd been thunderstruck when the goddess had hugged her instead, grateful that the regalia who'd served her so well would live.

"The phantoms have been eradicated," Kazuma said, stepping forward to update the whole group. "The Gloom around the school has started to dissipate and all the children have been cleansed of the blight."

"The regalia?" Tenjin asked.

"There were three in there. Kugaha was not one of them." Kazuma hesitated, looking shaken, then took a deep breath before he continued. "We did find out what they trying to accomplish. There were blighting children, deliberately turning them into phantoms, then giving them names. Seems phantoms formed from the wishes of humans are not quite as smart as they would like. When they died and became phantoms the children were given names before the more bestial nature of the phantoms could wholly overtake them."

"Who was the god they served?" Ianuaria demanded. There was distress and disbelief in her eyes. "How could any god do something so …." She shook her head and uttered a curse in an unknown language.

"It seems only Kugaha knew that," Kazuma said, spitting the words vehemently. "Those three were strays with no knowledge of who was making use of them. They would bring the children to the brink of transforming, then Kugaha would inform the god he served. Masked, that god would then visit long enough to give the children a name. We only know that he's male. Neither tall nor short. Neither is he excessively fat. It could be any of a million gods."

Bishamon spoke. "My ex-regalia Kugaha was a part of this atrocity. Those three did provide his name." She glared at the group, all of whom took a fearful step back. "Find him or prove his death, and almost anything you might ask of me I will grant."

The woman opened her mouth to speak again; instead she flinched, face going pale as the pain of being stung multiple times overwhelmed her, bringing the goddess to her knees. Bishamon raised her left hand to stare in shock. It'd been blighted to the extend that one of the fingers was now missing, ending in a blackened stub.

"Veena," Kazuma screamed, frozen in disbelief. "Veena," he yelled again, rushing forward.

"Stay back," she commanded of the regalia. "You'll be blighted too."

Heedless of his goddess' command, Kazuma knelt beside her, careful not to touch the afflicted area, yet determined to hold her during her time of distress. "What's happening?" he asked, trembling as he spoke. "Who? How?"

Another vicious shudder ran through the goddess, bringing forth a scream. "I don't know," she barely managed to gasp a second later. "This can't be. Not so many times, not so fast."

There was a howl, inhuman and otherworldly, from amongst Bishamon's regalia; a moment later a woman stepped forth from them. "Kill," she snarled. Her hand reached forth and Yukine's flesh tore, her fingers reaching deep within his spirit body.

The woman took another step forward, ripping her hand from her first victim as she did do. "Kill," came the unnatural snarl again. "Kill, kill, kill." She screamed darkly, sounding as if she was a banshee.

Ianuaria vanished with her two regalia.

Her hand whipped forward, and the woman left four deep black marks on Mayu's face. The regalia screamed, and fell backwards. She, along with the rest of Tenjin's regalia, vanished.

"Stop," Bishamon screamed at the berserk woman, pleading desperately. "Stop."

The woman turned towards Daikoku, grinning as only a lunatic could. She snapped forward, hand outreached. It slammed into a borderline.

Bang! Bang!

"Not another one," Bishamon sobbed pitifully, a single pistol held in her right hand. Then, still crying uncontrolled shrieks of anguish, the woman disappeared, as did her regalia.

Hiyori took a breath, having frozen in shock when the woman had ripped into the chest of Yukine. She raced for him, heedless of the blight she saw forming, desperate to aid him. She was meet with a snarl that wasn't unlike the one the woman had uttered several times. His teeth reached for her, then he and Yato faded from view.

"Oh gods," Hiyori moaned incredulously, whirling around to rest her fear-filled eyes on Daikoku. His eyes, blazing with primal fury, met hers.

"Daikoku, stop," Kofuku shrieked, imploring her friend and protector to return to his senses.

Daikoku's hand lashed out at Hiyori, only to vanish within an inch of her stunned eyes. Kofuku had vanished too, leaving the girl alone on the roof.

In the distance the children started to return to classes, the fire-alarm having been ruled a prank. Soaked to the bone, the teachers would merely take attendance to ensure all were safe, then send them home.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: Three days later, early morning._

In two hours she would have to give up the search and head to school, but for now Hiyori leapt from rooftop to rooftop, pausing every few minutes to sniff the air. The day they'd cleansed the school she'd done the same. And she'd done it the day after. Now it was the third day since that disastrous event, and she was once again searching for signs of the gods or their regalia. There were none to be found.

She'd already made her rounds of the temples, including Ianuaria's. At them she'd called in vain. Neither god nor regalia had answered her pleas.

"He has to be okay,_" _the girl tearfully muttered to herself, thinking of Yukine. "And Yato is a god, right? I still believe in him, so where is he?" She paused, standing atop a Sake and Oden shop. _But if he was reincarnated, he would've forgot about me, and if Yukine is hurt there would be no one to take care of either of them._

"AARRGGHH," she screamed her frustration, her all-encompassing distress into an uncaring morning sky that was gray with clouds. "Yato?" she then yelled into the empty shop. "Yukine? Daikoku? Kofuku?" There was no answer other than the slight echo her own voice.

Entering the eerily quiet building, a place that'd always been brimming with life, she walked through the rooms, feeling like an intruder. The floor was no longer the hazard zone it'd been after Yato had polished it to a mirror-like polish. Freely she scouted the area where Yato and Yukine had slept, then with great reluctance she poke her nose into Daikoku's room. The room of the goddess of poverty still had its door open from the last time she'd gone through the place. Her nerve didn't quite extend to entering that room, but she scrutinized it from outside, making sure to keep her distance from the doorway itself. It was empty. The whole place was empty.

"Daikoku?" she yelled again, not at all liking the echo that came back. "Kofuku?" she screamed with all the power of her spiritual lungs. "Please," she begged into the empty air. "Please, won't someone answer."

She left as she'd entered, still lacking any answer to where the gods and their regalia had disappeared. The memory of that day came back to her, causing her to visibly cringe. Deep inside she knew what had most likely happened. For some reason the regalia had all stung their masters to death, forcing them to reincarnate. Why? Of that she had no idea, though it certainly had something to do with that school. She'd visited there each day as well, and like all the shrines it'd given her no answers.

_He won, _Hiyori thought, thinking of Kugaha. _He forced a succession upon Bishamon._ _And he got revenge upon Yato and Yukine for taking his hand. He took their lives. I wonder if the rest were innocent victims, or if he'd planned to attack them all along. Tenjin aided Yato by sending him to the heavens. Kofuku is a friend of both Yato and Bishamon. What of Ianuaria? And who will take care of the gods while they are young? Their regalia weren't sane._

"AARRGGHH," she again bellowed her frustration, screaming futilely to the heavens.

Taking to the rooftops, she once again sniffed the air. It was void of any sign of the gods. But there was something, something that forced her to flinch, to want to take a step back, turn, and then flee for her life. It was the scent of a phantom, a big one.

_Who will kill the phantoms if the gods are gone? _Hiyori wondered, trembling as she stoically turned, then moved in the direction where the smell told her death most likely lay in wait. She had to at least check it out. To see what could be done. To see if anyone was in immediate danger.

The ground flew all too swiftly beneath her, soon bringing her to a small park. It was no bigger than a city block, but several massive trees with large, gorgeous pink blossoms made it a place of beauty. Within people sat in the shade, chatting peacefully. Several children ran amok in the area, playing on swings and see-saws. If they'd seen the horror that shared the space with them, they would've screamed, and they would've ran.

"Frig," Hiyori cursed aloud, staring at the frog, not too different from the one she'd once used a Jungle Savate kick on. But if anything, this one was a tad bit larger, and a whole lot uglier.

"Frig! Frig! Frig?" She uttered the words to the sky. The creature appeared indomitable, but the presence of people, including kids, held her attention, not letting her flee. "Frig! Frig! Frig!" Now she screamed the curse, bellowing them at the sky, throwing a tantrum. After a hundred such cruses, give or take a few, she sank to her knees. Then the tongue of the of the beast lashed out, flashing across twenty feet of space to lick a kid of no more than five or six.

"Delicious," the frog said, somehow speaking. "Delicious, delicious, delicious, …."

"Shut-up," Hiyori roared at it. "Leave that kid alone." Her words had the effect she'd expected; they were totally ignored.

"Delicious, delicious, …." The tongue lashed out again to lick the kid. "Smells good." The frog said, flexing its legs to take a leap.

"Jungle Savate." Without hesitation, Hiyori gave her battle cry, and launched herself at the frog. She caught it in mid leap, smashing it off course, sending it backward fifteen feet to land just outside of the park grounds.

Hiyori also landed just outside of the park, on a freeway. With frantic haste, wondering what would happened if one of the speeding vehicles hit her, she jumped to safety. There she paused to watch the frog, hoping it would turn away, or maybe just disappear. As she'd thought, it was a vain hope.

Stumbling back as the frog's tongue whipped out, then ran across her face, Hiyori let out a yelp of disgust. "Jungle Savate." She let loose with her battle cry again. Luck was with her, and the powerful kick actually snapped into the frog's boated mouth, flipping it over.

"Take that," Hiyori told the helpless creature, feeling false bravo. "I told you, lay off the kids, you sick pervert." She had no idea how to kill the creature, and nervous energy caused her to pace around it, wondering what to do.

Its struggles brought the phantom back upright; immediately it aimed its massive body at the girl, then leaped.

Crushed beneath the creature that was easily ten to twenty times her size, Hiyori panicked, screamed, and futilely tried to pummel the beast. With her arms pinned it a hopeless gesture, almost as useless as her earlier tantrum. Yet, as her panic grew, the absolute horror of wondering if she might be engulfed and consumed by the phantom, her strength seemed to grow, to match her hysteria. Her fingers flexed, and tore into the skin, leaving them soaked in some slick, disgusting, goo.

Seemingly irritated by the minor scratch, the beast moved, leaving the upper half of Hiyori's body free. Staring down at its prey, apparently unconcerned with her fighting prowess, the frog once again licked her, dropping a large drop of slime into her mouth as it did so.

"Ewwww," Hiyori shrieked midst coughing and sputtering as she tried to expel the vile phantom matter. She ended up swallowing most, turning her stomach. Her insides started to burn with the blight.

Then the tongue of the frog came for her again, not to lick but to wrap around her neck. She was lifted and dangled above the huge, dark expanse of its jaws. She was no god, and going there she knew would be the end of her.

Desperate, stomach twisting as nausea and pain sough to turn her insides inside out, she reached out, grabbed the tongue, and pulled it within reach of her own jaws. She clamped her teeth shut on the offending organ, and found herself suddenly hurling through the air to slam against a building thirty feet away.

"How about we call it a tie," the girl quipped, praying to any and all gods that the beast would just go away. Even as she ached from being battered, from the way her stomach still burned, she felt good. Puzzled, she stood, finding she could do so easily despite the way the fight had been going. She felt, powerful. _Why? _She started to wonder, but was given no time to ponder the matter further. The frog came for her.

"Jungle Savate." Her kick lashed out, stunning the frog.

"Jungle Savate." The frog flipped over, again rendered helpless.

"Jungle Savate." She leaped into the air, and brought her heel down on the beast's stomach.

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate."

"Jungle Savate." The frog turned to goo, then evaporated into the air.

Hiyori dropped to the ground, watching as the remains of the creature faded, leaving nothing behind. Somehow, she'd won. She might've tried to explain the way she felt as being from adrenaline, from the battle, but she'd felt this way for days now, since events at the school. Her friends might be gone, and she was worried sick about them, but physically she felt great. And after this fight, she felt even better.

Standing, she headed for Kofuku's place again, planning to make use of the shower there to purify herself from what small signs of the blight that now showed on her flesh. It was there, beneath the icy-cold water, recalling her times with her friends, that she realized where she had to go. There was one goddess she knew how to find.

She also knew it was suicide, certain death as not even pissing off Bishamon could deliver. But she was out of options. She had to know if her friends were still alive; if she could help them. The very fabric of her being cried out to her, saying it was crazy, but her heart said it was the only way. If Yato had reincarnated, he would be a helpless child. The same with Kofuku. She had to find them. So she would ask Izanami, Queen of the Underworld.

Idly, she recalled the promise she'd made to herself, that she would try not to worry her parents too much, that she would restrict how much she used her spirit form. "Sorry," she said, barely speaking above the running water. "I'm so sorry mama, papa."

She wasn't sure if there was a limit on how long she could stay out of her body, so she made a trip back home to rest for an hour. To let her batteries recharge, if indeed there was such a limit. Hiyori knew if the path to her body was cut, as if by a cursed cave wall, then there was indeed a time limit. Other than that she was clueless. While she rested, she wrote a letter to her parents. While she didn't speak of the spirit world, she did tell them how much she loved them, and how much she loved her friends. It was the least she could do for them, to leave them a last message expressing just how wonderful she thought they were.

That done, she led down in a comfortable position, and left her body behind.

It was more than three hours later that she approached the tourist destination – the underworld. Unseen, she passed through the still living visitors, seeking the entrance. Soon she left the corporal world behind to enter a place where only spirits could walk. There she found the seal, the last barrier to the underworld that even spirits couldn't pass. For a while she stared at the symbols that formed the seal, knowing if she succeeded in breaking it she died. It was a strange sensation, the conflict between hoping the seal held so she would live, and praying it would break so she could find her friends. She approached it.

It was hard as rock to the touch, and despite the symbols written on it, unnaturally smooth. Nor did her attempts at invocations have much effect. Finding she was powerless to break the seal, Hiyori stood beside it and yelled, shrieking as loud as she could, hoping Izanami would hear her pleas. Either the goddess didn't hear her, or didn't care. Still, her voice didn't falter as it rang out, unceasingly beseeching the goddess for over an hour.

_Useless, _the girl finally admitted, resting against the seal, raging inside at the indifference of the universe and the heavens.

After the hour of yelling that had left even her spirit throat raw and sore, Hiyori stood back a short distance to cast one pale, crescent-shaped borderline after another. They were brighter, a little more powerful, than the ones she'd used to peel an apple just days before, back before her whole world had come crashing down. Against the seal they were still useless. She counted, only stopping when she'd cast a thousand. Unblemished, the seal stood firm. She felt the obstacle with her fingertip to find it as cool to the touch as when she'd started. Nor could they find the slightest hint of even a scratch.

_It's my power against that of a goddess," _Hiyori admitted. _And my power is sadly lacking. What else can I do? There has to be something. There has to be. As Touno said, pave the way with your own two hands, so there has to a road, and a way to pave that road with my own two hands. There has to be._

She kicked the door. Each time she let out her usual cry of "Jungle Savate." The force of each impact traveled through her whole body, wrecking havoc as it did so; yet she launched those ankle breaking kicks time and time again. After two dozen, having what felt like broken bones stabbing throughout her leg, with the rest of her not faring much better, Hiyori sank to her knees, then fell wearily against the door, resting her battered body against it.

_I'll try something else in a few minutes, _she promised herself. _There has to be something. _She sat, placed her back firmly against the seal, and stared at the cave roof. It was rocky and uninteresting, giving no hint it was part of the path to the underworld.

_A few more minutes, _Hiyori said to herself after five minutes had passed. _It might take days, weeks even, but maybe the borderlines are having an effect. I'll do a hundred thousand, and then see what happens before I give up. And maybe she can hear me. I'll keep yelling every few minutes. If she can hear me, I'll make her sick of my voice. I'll force her to answer the bloody door._

Eyes closed, she studied the remnants of the pain that still gripped her. Having never been hurt during her time with Yato, she wasn't sure if her spirit form should heal so rapidly, but her ankle had subsided to a dull ache, while the rest of her body was merely weary. It wasn't the change one would've expected after a measly ten minutes of resting. And there was still that strange sense of energy within her that said she ought to feel great.

_But that's good, _Hiyori told herself, rejoicing at the sensation of her body mending so rapidly. _It means I can use more of those kicks. Maybe a thousand invocations per hour. I can sit while doing those, so I'll heal from doing the kicks. _She nodded to herself. _It's a plan. A minute of yelling, a dozen kicks, then two-hundred-and-fifty invocations every fifteen minutes. _She forced a small smile. _There's the eternally wandering Dutchman, so I'll become the eternally Door Battering Madwoman. _Determined, Hiyori reached out a hand, planning to pushing herself to her feet, then she fell backwards.

Lying across the threshold, Hiyori blinked twice in shock, then looked around, prepared to plead her case. There was no sign of the goddess who'd she expected to be there. It was, after all, the goddess who'd broke the seal. It certain hadn't been her.

"Hello," she called into the darkness. "Goddess Izanami," she said, making sure her tone was very respectful. "Please goddess, I've come to ask, err, plead for help."

Hiyori remained on the floor, keeping her head bowed while she wondered how to speak to the goddess. 'Ask' she felt was way to demanding. It wasn't as if this was Yato she was speaking to, a close friend. Rather, it was the queen of the underworld; someone who she knew was all to willing to kill both gods and regalia. She would beg for information, perhaps beg for her life, and then hope to be allowed to leave. It wasn't as if she, a human spirit, was of much use to the goddess. Her spirit would be swiftly corrupted long before they could become 'friends.'

Minutes passed and the silence remained. She'd stopped speaking, wondering if it was her place now to merely wait until the goddess recognized her. But more minutes passed, and still there was nothing. _How long is the patience of a goddess, _Hiyori wondered as she waited. _Hours? Days? Years? How long do I kneel here before I dare to stand?_

Hesitating, Hiyori stood to take a look around, having held her position on her knees for well over an hour. There was no one to be seen. While the way ahead was dark, there was some light. Not knowing what else to do, she took her first step in the underworld.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: Immediately after the previous chapter._

Hiyori took her first step into the underworld, then paused. The air was putrid, and full of Gloom, hinting of things better left unthought of, yet …. She sniffed, taking in a hug gulp of the foul air through her nostrils, only to spend the next five minutes dry-heaving as the stench, and the despair from the Gloom, sought to overwhelm her. Valiantly, she repeated the stomach-churning process until she could breathe the air normally. Then she sought for the one smell she knew she would find – the sweet scent of a goddess.

The path was smooth at first with merely the occasional stone or pebble on the ground. After ten minutes Hiyori saw her first phantom, a green mouse with eight eyes and three tails. She stopped to stare at it, wondering what to do. _Do I kill it? A borderline would do the job on something so small. But … this is the underworld, and Izanami rules here, a goddess who uses phantoms. What if this is her pet, or a servant. A guard to watch the tunnels, perhaps. Killing it might be a bad move, a suicidal one._ The mouse walked up to her, stared at her for several seconds, then tried to bite her toe.

Hiyori walked on, not bothered by the little follower who had no hope of biting through her shoes. Then she found another waiting in the tunnels. And it too decided her shoes were the best thing it'd had for lunch since forever. Pausing to ponder on what to do, the girl looked down the tunnel. She saw two more of the creatures running for her with crazed desperation. She looked down to see her shoes hadn't even been scratched, so she decided to continue to ignore the rodents. The four became five, which all of sudden became ten when another five rushed out to join in the free-for-all shoe banquet. Now the nips were sometimes reaching higher, not yet ripping into flesh, but quite close to it.

_If any more join, I'll have to kill them … but …. _Hiyori sighed. _Won't be any good if I'm dead before I reach Izanami. _She sniffed the air and walked on, puzzled. The tunnel seemed to come to an end, but the air still flowed freely, strongly carrying the scent of the goddess. She took another step, planning to touch the wall, to search for an exit. She fell, having discovered that in the dim light she'd mistaken the darkness of a pit for a solid stone floor.

There was the sensation of being soaked, the shock of a bone-wrenching impact, then the swirling sound of water, much like that of piranhas rushing to a feast. Her flesh burst into a dozen pinpricks of agony, then two dozen. Hiyori screamed and stood to find herself standing in knee-deep water that was boiling with small phantoms. As ten more joined the feeding frenzy, she realized she should've killed the ten that'd followed her. She was being eaten alive.

_Touno, guide me, _she prayed. What came to mind was the image of the man she'd seen at the school, the one who'd had his leg nearly gnawed off, yet who still stood his ground. The shock had kept her from screaming so far, and Hiyori decided that was a good idea, that only the goddess Izanami knew what else a scream might draw to her.

Face pale, struggling to not bellow out her pain, she cast an invocation, cutting two of the attackers into pieces. More than two excruciating minutes passed while the stricken girl was viciously fed upon, then the onslaught abated, leaving the water dark with the corpses of a hundred evaporating phantoms. Struggling past the pain, past the hysteria to scream and flee, Hiyori recalled what Yato had said of his time in the underworld, Reached into the water, she pulled up a material that was half mud, half the decaying remains of some vile substance. _Wonder if the city sewers empty into this place, this reeks even more than the air.…_ Sobbing, she applied the camouflage.

She spread the material over her upper body, caking her hair, being sure to drop some inside her blouse. She coated herself down to her knees where her flesh was raw and well nibbled. At that point the water would've washed it away, making it an empty gesture.

Needing a place to rest, she pressed her body against the luminous, though cold, stone wall and cast a borderline, creating a small sanctuary. Fifteen minutes later, her legs nearly healed, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, gagged on the stench, and let the protection drop to continue on her way.

Sniffing the air, Hiyori set her course. Soon she left the water behind to wade instead through a foot of mud; at least that was what she decided to call it, not wanting to know what it actually was. She did take care to re-coat her body with it, actually crying a few tears as she did so.

_At least the light is better here, _the girl noted. _Everything seems to have a slight glow_. She paused. _Does rotting poop glow? Cause I know it's something at least that bad. _Shuddering, wondering what her father, the doctor, would think of her wading through stinky, disease-ridden poop, she took another step.

In her disgust, she failed to notice the strands of hair that ran through the tunnels. If Izanami hadn't known of her presence before, she did now. Deep within the labyrinth a half-skull, half-rotting-flesh head raised itself from a bony chest to reveal a half-skeletal neck. One rotting eyelid opened to show the eye socket beneath was as empty as the other. Twisting her head, Izanami stared through the tunnels, seeking the intruder that'd disturbed her rest. Seeing a solitary human child that single eyelid slid shut and the head drooped lower to once again rest on the bony chest.

The way was ridiculously easy for a while. Then the phantoms she encountered grew in size, becoming the size of rats. Fearful, Hiyori stopped her journey to re-coat her tail with mud. To her surprise the tip was now black. She'd felt nothing so far, but it seemed her time in the underworld was limited.

_I knew that, _she told herself, trembling with fear. _I'll corrode in here. My flesh will turn to blight and I'll … I'll … _Her face screwed up in confusion. _I'll what? Will I just be eaten alive? Rot? Or will I become a phantom? _She shrugged, and after she'd fully re-coated her body, continued on her way. _Either way, I'll be dead, _she simply told herself.

Through the mud she waded for hours until she came to a stop to once again, as she had so many times before, to sniff the miasma that passed for air in the underworld. The way forward was blocked by wolf-sized phantoms, yet that was the path she had to take to Izanami.

With despair finally washing over her, seeking to break her spirit, Hiyori sat in the mud, wanting to do nothing more than wail, to scream like a baby and throw a tantrum. She pulled the mud over her legs, coating her whole body until she looked like a mud sculpture, until there was nothing recognizably human about her.

_To fight here is to die, _the girl reluctantly acknowledged, letting out a tiny sob. _If I even make a loud sound, a human sound, everything will know there's a tasty treat nearby. They'll tear me apart. _She had no pretension of grandeur in this place. Here she was merely food for the beasts that scurried all around her.

_Pave the way with your own hands, _Hiyori told herself, then rejected the words. _There's no road to pave. It ends here. Either I go back, or I go forward and die. I can't get past the wolves. _There was another sob. _But when I came here, I knew it was to die. I …. _Quietly she wept for her own death, for the sorrow she would cause her parents, her friends. Then, crawling, she crept to a point where she could examine the wolf-life creatures that barred her way. They numbered in the dozens, perhaps the hundreds. One glanced her way and she slowly scurried backwards.

One of the mouse-like creatures that'd given her so much trouble before ran out of the tunnel, and Hiyori, knowing she had to kill it quick, lest it draw attention to her, let her hand flash out to grab it. She crushed it in her fist. She stared at her palm, at where the remains of the mouse was now fading. _I'm no better than that mouse, _she admitted to herself. _I'm like a mouse that_ _any phantom cat or owl might enjoy._

Hiyori blinked, then looked from her palm to the tunnel where the wolves lay in wait. _I'm not a human, _she informed herself. _No, I'm a mouse. So, how does a mouse get past a cat? They have mouse holes, or travel underground. They stay away from the cat. They stay unseen._

Sniffing, Hiyori return to her state as a mud statue to think, to ponder how a mouse might get past a cat. Here she had no mouse holes, or anyway to tunnel beneath the wolves, but ….

She dug a small area around herself, clearing the mud down to the bedrock, then led flat in the depression. Awkwardly, she piled handful after handful of the reeking mud atop her legs and back and even her head. Its weight bore down on her, almost crushing her, yet she continued with the task until it was piled a foot high.

Barely able to move she slid forward, forcing herself through the mud. She didn't move as a mouse, she moved as a worm. And while the foot-deep mud wasn't enough to fully hide her presence, there was nothing of her humanity for the wolves to see, or scent. She was nothing but a mound of mud.

_But what will they think of a mound of mud that moves? _Hiyori wondered. _And I hope they only look like wolves because …. _She had visions of wolves digging through the ground, hunting for mice. _Because this wouldn't work against a real wolf._

The mound moved slowly closer to the wolf pack, moving agonizing inch by agonizing inch. It wasn't just the need to keep the phantoms from getting suspicious of the moving mud mound that forced such a slow pace; the weight of the camouflage she wore was massive and would've crushed her human form.

One …. Two.… Three.… Four …. Five …. Six .… Seven .… Eight .… Nine … Ten ….

Hiyori pushed forward an inch, struggling to carry the weight, as well as to force her way against the mud that barred her path.

One.… Two.… Three .… Four …. Five …. Six .… Seven .… Eight .… Nine … Ten ….

Once again she arched her back just a little, and slid forward.

There was a sound that was much like a growl and she froze, waiting for the coming disaster. Images of the wolves digging for a mouse filled her mind; the growling increased.

_No, no, no, no, …. _the terrified girl mentally shrieked, wondering if they could sense her thoughts. She forced herself to stop panicking, to lie unmoving and think of nothing. She imaged she was just a pile of mud, cold, wet, clammy, foul, disgusting, vile. She was just mud. There was nothing beneath the mound, and no tasty food to be found for miles and miles.

The weight on her grew, though not by much. A wolf had step on the moving mound, or she guessed, but it was a phantom and wishes didn't always carry that much weight. There was the sound of scratching, of a few seconds of digging and the petrified girl knew she was dead. In her mind she saw the image of her corpse and knew what her parents would find when they next entered her room.

Hiyori closed her eyes and let a few tears slid down her cheek. Even as she prepared for the final battle, the image of her corpse never left her mind. Then the scratching stopped. Above her one of the wolves had dug a little, but she'd piled a foot of mud atop her back and head. It'd found nothing during its brief hunt. Curious as a moving mound of mud might be, there was nothing to eat there.

Hiyori waited for what felt like a whole day, though she had no idea how long it actually was. Then she started the process again.

One.… Two.… Three .… Four …. Five …. Six .… Seven .… Eight .… Nine … Ten ….

She arched her back just enough to slip forward; then she patiently waited again.

Finally she passed the wolves. She'd somehow made it the two-hundred feet or so to make it through what was probably their lair. Still beneath the mud, heart still racing out of control, needing a break, she let her head rest on the ground and closed her eyes.

Something snared her neck, then she was brutally yanked from the shell of mud she'd created to dangle in the air. Izanami had taken an interest in her, but the girl had no time to comprehend this.

Dragged by the neck with blinding speed, with little care as to how her body fared, a slight brush with the unyielding, tunnel wall shattered her right arm, causing a throbbing torment that left her dazed. A boulder barred the way, and she was forcibly and liternally shattered against it, bringing ruinous damage to both her chest and head. Then she scrapped over it, much like a raw piece of meat on a string dragged as bait on the ground. Around her the phantoms took interest, but her passing was too quick for any to seize the chance.

Awareness returned to the girl in the form of a soul-destroying agony that encompassed her whole body from her little toe to the tip of her head. It all either ached horribly, or was a throbbing torment that sought to render her into unconsciousness again.

"How are you finding your way through my labyrinth?" a chilly voice demanded. "How do you know the route to me when the tunnels are always changing?"

The goddess Izanami, half-skeletal in nature, leaned forward to sniff the air. "There's no divine scent on you," she informed the still disoriented piece of raw, oozing flesh that dangled before her. "How did you last days in the underworld, girl?"

_Days? _Was the first coherent thought Hiyori managed, but a flexing of the noose around her neck quickly ended it. Jiggling in the air, her body near death, the girl's mind swiftly sought escape into unconsciousness. The respite was brief.

Slowly, Hiyori opened her eyes to meet an empty-eyed gaze. A scream rose in her throat and she struggled with a frenetic and desperate strength to free herself, to flee. Before her sat a monster of half bone, half flesh. The flesh was continuously decaying, turning to worms and maggots and every sort of night crawler. Then it returned to being firm, healthy flesh, knitting the bugs and other crawly things into itself as it did so. Then the decay returned. Nor was there anything human in that horrible gaze.

Despairing, Hiyori let out a shriek of pure gibberish as her mind struggled to retain its sanity. Her fingers clawed uselessly at the hair that encircled her neck, then her eyes rolled back in their sockets, sending her back to the illusory safety of unconsciousness.

"You can see through my facade?" Izanami said, speaking slowly, in shock. For a second her empty-eye sockets left that of the girl to stare unseeing past the rocky walls of her domain. "No, it can't be," she decided a moment later, and her attention returned to her helpless pray.

"I've come to beseech you for help." Hiyori gasped each word, needing to focus clearly on each to get them past the noose around her neck. "Please."

"You!" Izanami roared. "I KNOW that voice. You stole my friend." There was an unearthly howl and she let the hair that was her weapon flex and tighten around the neck of the now much hated intruder. "You vile human. How dare you steal from me."

Hiyori focused her eyes on the goddess, knowing what she saw was merely the flesh the goddess wore. She knew better than to judge a book by its cover, yet …. Her eyes closed, unable to bear the strain. Vainly, her fingers continued to claw at the hair that entangled her, and now threatened to quickly end her.

"Whatever your request may be, thief, I have no desire to grant it. My only wish is to see you die, which you shall all too soon for my liking." A strand of hair whipped out to grasp the tail of the helpless, dying girl. "See, much as I regret it, your link to your body is now at an end. It seems the heavens are with you, for I would've much preferred to play with you, you horrible thief."

Hiyori forced herself to open her eyes, to see what the goddess was showing her. Of her tail there was no hint of the dark pink it usually was, now rather it was a dark black. She was dead with no time to even plead her case with the goddess who had no desire to listen.

A flick of the hair that grasped the girl's neck sent Hiyori flying to smash against the wall.

"Feed on her, my friends," Izanami said. "Be quick lest she fade before you drink of her essence."

_No, no no, …. A dying _Hiyori screamed, though no sound emerged. She wasn't sure if any of the bones in her body remained intact, nor was she certain where the strength to stand came from, but with broken arms she pushed herself to her knees, then, staggered, to her feet to stand on broken legs. _Damn goddess, _she yelled, though she had neither the strength to move her lips, nor to make a sound.

The first of a number woman-shaped phantoms, nude and voluptuous, came at her, swimming through the soil like she'd done to get past the wolves.

"I don't want to die," she cried. "I just wanted to find my friends." The words came out in a whisper, then the first of the phantoms reached her. Her kick, weak and pitiful, had no effect on the woman, though it knocked her back six inches. Hiyori, collapsing herself under the effort, was left prone on the ground with legs that now bent at unnatural angles. The phantom, resuming its attack, fastened it's mouth on her thigh, seeking to suck out what little life remained.

Blacking out, unable to even see the woman who was now leeching out her life, Hiyori, more unconscious then conscious, practically unaware of what she was doing, yet driven to strive in vain for the life she loved so much, used her left hand to help hold her right, which was too shattered to move of its own accord, and created a borderline. It was nearly nonexistent, a mere feeble flicker of light, nor did it even annoy the woman who didn't flinch. The phantom, joined by her sisters, continued their rare feast.

Izanami left her throne of mud to stand over the now fading corpse. Lowing her bony jaw to within an inch of the girl's mouth she inhaled. Hesitatingly, incredulously, she spoke a single word, "Succubus."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: An unknown amount of time after the previous chapter._

_So cold. _That was Hiyori first thought as her consciousness slowly returned. _I'm sooo cold. Oh gods, I'm sooo cold._

"Open your eyes and rejoice thief, for the goddess Izanami has decreed that she will hear your plea. Be grateful of her mercy."

When the girl before her remained still, Izanami sighed. "This is why humans are so troublesome," she said, speaking to no one in particular. "Look at me, thief."

Hiyori's eyes remained shut. Along with the cold there was a heaviness that was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It was as if her body, weighing as it did, would crush her against the floor, killing her. _Kill me? _She pondered, struggling to think of something other than the cold that pierced her very bones, and the all-encompassing weariness. _Aren't I already dead?_

"Eat then," the goddess said. "I have time. I have all the time in the world." She tilted her head. "Perhaps."

_No! _The thought of eating caused the cold to deepen, sending Hiyori back into a frantic panic. She finally moved as cold shivers of terror ran down her back, causing her to shudder.

_The pain? _She pondered the sensation of having moved, despite how weary she was, without having the desire to call out in pain. _So, I'm really dead._

"You know, thief, I might have all the time in the world, but I find my patience is sadly lacking."

What felt like a thousand, needle-sharp wires plied at her mouth, forcing her chilled, numb lips apart. Trying to resist what came next was futile, and something was thrust not just into her mouth, but down her throat and all the way to her stomach. Too cold and weary to even retch, to try to puke, the girl just led there, accepting what had happened. _Now I can never leave, _Hiyori thought, and a tear ran its weary way down her cheek. _I'm here, with her, forever and ever. I'll never see Yato and Yukine again. Never be hassled and sexually molested by Kofuku. Never hear Daikoku's stern voice as he pretends to anger. Dad and I will never tease mom again. It's all over. And it was all so good._

For a while there was a dull pain in her stomach, then there was …. Hiyori finally blinked and opened her eyes, wondering as the previous sensation of feeling great returned. Her body was heavy and she was as cold as the arctic ice, but there was the intangible sense of knowing she was okay, that she would heal. She felt good. Looking around, she saw that she had no tail.

"Am I dead?" she asked the goddess who was sitting on her throne, mere feet away.

"You're alive, thief" the goddess said, her skeletal jaw somehow forming words though it lacked a tongue. At least it did for a short while. Briefly a tongue formed, then turned back to things that usually crept deep within the soil.

Hiyori blinked, struggling to not scream herself into blacking out again.

"Be grateful. The trouble it took was no little feat. Few of the gods could have saved you, thief. Eat more, then you will answer my questions." There was a long silence. "And I will hear your plea. You interest me, succubus."

_Succubus? _Hiyori had no idea what the goddess meant by that, and decided it must be an insult, much like slut. She quieted her anger, deciding it was enough that the goddess would listen to her; let the woman call her as she pleased, if only she would help.

"Eat."

Slowly wiggling, forcing a body that seemed like it was only half hers to move, Hiyori manged to sit. She looked around to find she was sitting in a puddle of water, From above came a cold mist that partly explained why she was chilled to the bone. She looked up to see a dark hole that pierced the ceiling. It seemed to lead into infinite darkness, yet she knew it had to end somewhere. Somewhere where there was water, for that was where the mist came from. It came from the hole like a tiny, sparkling waterfall, then broke into droplets as it fell, somehow magically dispersing the Gloom. _And despite the cold, it feels so good, _she thought, having to remind herself not to cup her hands and catch some, to not drink of anything that came from this place.

"It's safe," the goddess spoke again, closely watching the human that'd fallen into her lair. "I opened a vent to the surface where a blessed spring runs. The water comes from there, not this place. It serves me no purpose to chain you to the underworld. Even I can not keep your spirit from withering for long. Drink."

Unable to resist, Hiyori cupped her hands and let them fill with the liquid. Then she drank. It was good, and she knew the taste. _This comes from the garden at Kofuku's place, _she realized. Knowing that, she raised her shaking hands to gather more water, and drank again. It was the most delicious thing she'd ever had.

A strain of hair lashed out, striking at something at the far edge of the cavern. Then it moved to place what it'd caught in front of Hiyori. "Eat," the goddess commanded. It clearly was not a request.

The girl stared at what she'd been offered. With three tails and eight eyes, it one of the rodents she'd encountered on her way to this place. Still alive, it tried to nibble on the hair that held it captive, but it seemed the material was too tough to chew, and far too sharp. It started to bleed from the mouth.

"Eat," came the command again.

Hiyori blinked again, cringing backwards. Then she recalled that she'd been fed before, that the goddess had thrust something down her throat. She looked up, disbelieving.

There was the sound of bones being ground together as Izanami gritted her teeth, seeking to remain patient. "Eat," she told the girl. "They will not bind you to this place. I swear it."

"But it's a phantom," Hiyori exclaimed. "It's not … human food." She blinked. "But I'm a spirit now, right, so I don't need food. I can manage the hunger."

Izanami blinked. "I told you, thief, you're alive."

"But …." Hiyori started to check her body and realized for the first time that her clothes had changed since she'd awoke in this place. The journey, not to mention being hauled through the caves, had rendered her almost naked. Now she wore the uniform she normally wore to school. She tugged at the sodden material, and poked at her chilled flesh. She was fully alive, and back in her body. _That's why I don't have a tail, not because she made me a spirit. _Closing her eyes, Hiyori wept, grateful for her life, to have a second chance.

"Thank you, goddess." She spoke the words humbly and with great gratitude. "I thank you." She took a deep breath, preparing for the worse. "But that's not human food. I can wait until I get back to the surface." Hiyori crossed her fingers. _If I get back to the surface._

Izanami paused to think on the girl's response for a few seconds. "Thief, you've blacked out on me how many times? Besides," she grinned demonically, "what sort of hostess lets a guest go hungry."

"Oh, I'm hardly hungry." Hiyori lied.

More strands of hair lashed forth, and as before the girl felt her mouth being plied open by dozens of sharp wires. Then the mouse, as the previous one had, was shoved violently into her mouth and down all the way to her stomach. Vainly tugging at the hair availed her not as the goddess unhesitatingly caught another three which she was forcibly fed.

The pain tore through Hiyori's stomach, and she dry-heaved violently as she sought to vomit the vile meal up. _They're already gone, _the girl admitted after nearly five minutes of attempting to make herself throw up. _The creatures would've, of course, turned to goo and disintegrated, like phantoms do when they die. There's nothing left to throw-up. _She turned to look up at the goddess. _But why do I feel so good. They were phantoms, and I should be blighted. But …. _

Izanami watch as the girl sat up straight, showing no signs of the weariness that'd been so clearly dragging at her before. The human raised a hand, unthinkingly, with little effort to brush her water-laden air from her stunning magenta eyes.

"What?" Hiyori asked, puzzled. "Why do I feel so good after eating … that?" She shuddered. The pain had passed, and she indeed did feet better than ever.

"Tell me, thief, can it be that you don't even know what you are, succubus?"

"I'm no demon, and I don't even tease boys, let alone seduce them." It was hard for her to force the last words out, seduce.

"A succubus is a form of human I had thought long extinct upon the earth. They feed upon the life-force of others, as you clearly can."

"But …." Hiyori raised her hand to stare at it. "I'm human. My parents are human. I'm no …." She shook her head.

Izanami leaned forward to sniff the air. "Child, you are clearly a succubus. Such a feast would've otherwise blighted you." She tilted her head. "Actually, to be more correct, it did blight you. However, your spirit fed from the life-force of those phantoms, then healed you."

The goddess sat back in her chair. "Truth be told, I had believed your kind extinct tens of thousands of years ago." With a shake of her head in wonder, she continued to study the girl fate had brought to her. "Ebisu is a god of fortune," she continued speaking aloud, to herself and not the girl. "I wonder, if perhaps, in some way this is his doing?"

"Ebisu? What does he have to do with this? He's the god you let escape, the one Yato came to save, right?"

"Perceptive, as a succubus would be," Izanami said. "I did indeed allow him to leave. Tell me, thief, do you get flashes of insight? Can you trace the gods by scent alone? In spirit form are you swift and strong as no spirit should be?"

"Well … sort of … I guess."

"Inconceivable," Izanami admitted, speaking again to herself. "Who would've imagined that the genes would've remained within the gene pool of humanity. That after so long they would still be viable, and by random chance would come together to form that which should be not exist." She smiled, and spoke with great pride. "Truly, if this is his doing, then my son is … beyond words. The succubus were hunted to extinction at the fall of the first civilization of man, sixty-three thousand years ago."

"Sixty..." Hiyori stare at the goddess who had a memory that long. "The fossil record shows such a civilization never existed," she insisted. "We would know if it had."

Izanami waved her hand, dismissing the challenge to her words. "True, they had barely begun. Agriculture had just been born, and the first towns were only beginning to form. They had no chance, for the heavens fell into chaos, and the earth did likewise. Humans were returned to the caves for thousands of years to come before they again began the climb to civilization. For a brief, few hundred years, human population soared to nearly five million, then fell back to less than twenty thousand."

"Oh."

"Tell no one what you are, thief," Izanami warned. "Gods reincarnate, leaving behind their memory. No one but I can recall those days. But if they were to be told, there are records they could check. They would hunt you."

"But?"

"It was their desire to destroy the succubus that ended that first civilization. It was why the heavens fell into chaos. You feed upon life itself, even that of gods. We know that we're formed from the wishes of humanity, but to know that for some we are mere food …." She shook her head. "It would be a blow their pride could not withstand."

"But I'm human?"

"Fully so."

Hiyori sighed in relief. "So long as I'm not a monster," she said.

"What is your plea, thief? Why did you come here after committing such a deed, and without vows or prayers in my name." The goddess frowned, the bone of her jaws somehow bending. "Without even an offering, if what I see is correct."

"I..." Hiyori gulped. "My apologizes, goddess," she said, carefully choosing her words. "I was not thinking clearly. I was focused only on my friends and if they were okay. When I return to the surface I will make an offering." Upon the word, friends, she knew she'd made a mistake.

"You stole my friend," the goddess accused.

"No, I retrieved my friend," Hiyori dared to counter, not knowing what else to do, or how she could quell the goddess' anger. "He did not desire to stay here, so I aided him in leaving. If he'd wished to stay, I would have left him here, or he would've returned. He didn't." She closed her eyes and sighed. "But goddess, I am sorry to have harmed you. I am truly sorry."

"Look at me." Izanami leaned down, her accusing gaze piercing the girl.

Hiyori looked at the goddess, trembling. Yet the goddess had given her a command, and so she obeyed if only to gain favor. Unflinching, she met the gaze and returned it. Her mind twisted, threatening to rebel at the sight, so she focused on the smell. Like all the gods, Izanami, whatever her looks, smelled good. Soon she grew used to the sight the of ever-reforming and decaying flesh.

"You speak the truth," Izanami admitted a minute later. "None wish to stay here. Neither do I, but this is the place where I now belong." Longingly, she stared upward, seeking to piece the veil between her and the heavens, the place where she'd once dwelled with a husband she'd loved.

"Your plea?" the goddess asked again.

Hiyori told the goddess of what had happened at the school. Of how the regalia had run amok and blighted the gods. How they'd all fled and could not be found.

"And your wish is to know what happened? What drove the regalia to sting their masters?"

Hiyori nodded. "Yes goddess. I need to find them, to aid them in any way I can."

"Where they are I have no idea. The earth is not a place where I can spend much time. Being a succubus, you're better suited to finding them than I am. As for what drove the regalia crazy. That is simple. They were diseased."

"Diseased?"

Izanami spoke. "Spirits still feel the cold, still seek family. For ones given a name like the regalia, they are only a little displaced from the humans they once were. Just as they can feel the hunger though they have no need to eat, they know they can fall ill though they have no body that can catch the flu. My guess would be a sorcerer conjured a phantom from an existing disease, then set it loose on the regalia. And because the regalia believe they can be infected, they are, though only because they believe. It becomes a wish that turns back upon them, derived from their desire to be human again."

"A phantom, so an ablution will cure them?"

"No. Having confessed the sins the phantom drove them to, the regalia will seem to regain their health. The phantom will, however, remain and the regalia will fall in despair once again."

"Oh. Then how?"

"Thief, I have heard your plea. But the knowledge you seek shall not be free." Izanami's gaze once again pierced the girl. "I have a plea of my own."

"Goddess?" Hiyori bowed her head, prepared to listen.

"Ebisu came to my domain for a brush of hell to aid him in his quest to control phantoms. As you have already determined, I gave him the brush and allowed him to leave." She tilted her head. "And I see you already have a question." She sighed. "Humans…."

"Why not just give him the brush and allow him to walk out?"

"Why indeed. I have my reputation to maintain. But truth be told, I know he's a person of great compassion. If I were to allow it, he would remain here with me, and like me he would become trapped. That I will not allow."

"You love him … but …." Hiyori recalled the stories she'd heard of how the goddess had rejected her son, abandoning him.

"I knew disaster was about to befall me. I knew neither why nor how nor what, but I knew that it would. Divination is like that, always tricky." Izanami sighed.

"I see. And if you'd kept him by your side, him being a child, he would've been with you when you were trapped here."

"Yes succubus. Now, may I continue?"

"Sorry, goddess." _She loves her son, _Hiyori thought, and her feelings towards the goddess changed a little. The being before her was not without mercy or love, as she'd so often heard. She was a mother forever exiled from her beloved son's side.

"He reincarnates way too much. I made the brushes of hell not just to create friends for myself, thought I also desired that, but to aid him in his quest to control phantoms. Even here I hear things, and so I learned of his actions even before the heavens did. He was, after all, dealing with phantoms and they speak to me."

"I see, goddess. And your request?" Hiyori gulped, wondering at how she dared to speak in such a manner to a goddess like Izanami. Yet she also knew in this situation it was proper.

"The heavens have turned their eyes on Ebisu, so I wish to protect him."

"Goddess," Hiyori gasped. "How can a human protect a god? He has regalia who are far more skilled at combat than I am. What can I do?"

"You forget, thief," Izanami leaned down to place a withered finger tip under the girl's chin, "you are a succubus."

"So I can beat up a few weak phantoms? I can't defend a god from the heavens. That's …."

"You know little of what you're capable of, thief. That is the plea I have, and the deal you must agree to if you wish to save your friends. But I do not ask you to serve him and protect him forever. If you retrieve the brushes of hell I forged from the one who stole them, and give them to my son, the rightful owner, I will be more than happy with our deal."

Hiyori let her head sink lower. "Goddess, I have no choice. I will do everything I can to return the brushes to Ebisu. Just aid me in protecting my friends, please."

Izanami nodded, satisfied. "It will seem to you as if I tricked you, thief, but remember, without this knowledge they would not know how to save the regalia, nor how to prevent the gods from reincarnating. It's simple. Ianuaria is a goddess of healing and one of her regalia will become a branch laden with berries when called. The other will become a staff that can draw a spring of blessed water from any soil, no matter how parched it may be. Take the water from such a spring and mixed in the juice and pulp from several berries. Such a concoction, if drank by the regalia immediately before an ablution, will destroy the phantom causing the disease." The goddess tilted her head. "Or, rather, the regalia will believe they are cured, and that will end the wish that was turned back upon them."

"How? Won't they already know how to do that?"

"No. Ianuaria is used to human diseases. She works through a priestess, interacting little with the world herself. She will certainly try to heal them, but unless she happens by chance to give them the drink within seconds before an ablution she won't know how."

"Oh." Hiyori sighed. "Who took the brushes?"

"I do not know. A human, not a succubus, but one with great power and knowledge. A man of not many years, though his spirit is centuries old."

"How can I find him?"

"Seek a great number of phantoms. He does, after all, have the brushes of hell and I know he uses them frequently."

Izanami frowned as she stared at the succubus, wondering at the girl's strength. "Thief," she said, "remember, even if you feed your human body, your spiritual one will never be full. You must feed on phantoms if you wish to live against whoever stole Ebisu's gift."

"I …." Hiyori cringed. "I make no promises. I will try to fulfill your request."

'Do you know how to hide your tail?"

"Hide my tail? No."

The goddess nodded. "It does me no good to send a warrior on a task without giving them the tools they need to succeed. Without charge, I will show you. Stand in your spirit form."

Hiyori stood, then screamed as the hair of Izanami snapped outward, taking her in an iron grip. Flickering faster than the eye could follow, strands of hair sliced into her tail, cutting it lengthwise once then twice then …. She continue to scream and scream as her tail was sliced into thousands of tiny lengths. She felt herself begin to die again just as she was thrust back into her body.

"Wait," Izanami said, heedless of the agony she'd just inflicted on the girl. "We wait now."

Hiyori stopped her weeping, wondering if the time would ever come when she would go a full hour without getting hurt, of suffering some horrible wound. Her eyes reflected a soul that'd been hurt one time too many. Her father would've said the girl was in shock.

Izanami sighed and relented. "Child, the tail was not something beneficial to your survival. I have cut it into many lengthy and wrapped them around your spirit form, connecting your spine to your skin in numerous places.. They will adhere to both your spine and skin. In effect, your skin is now your tail. There is no longer one single weakness. I left a single strand to grow anew, giving the impression your tail is as it always was. No one will know the difference, but now you need not worry about it being cut."

"I see," Hiyori said softly, dazed and deep in shock. As she felt the pain ebb, the girl slowly pushed herself to her feet, knowing it was time to leave before she was broken completely. Thinking, she slowly turned, looking around with dread growing inside her, suddenly realizing that she had no way out of the underworld. Nor could she ever hope to make it out alone dragging her human form along.

Turning to ask Izanami, she was gripped by thousands of hairs, and thrust upward into the darkness. Then she was standing beside Kofuku's house with the vent she'd traveled through quickly closing.

There she knelt, took a drink of the spring water, collapsed, and wept unceasingly for hours.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: A few hours after the previous chapter._

Still in shock, Hiyori wept for hours, then she stood to slowly make her way home. While she felt great, she knew something inside was broken. Again, it was a strange sensation, a conflict that she was unable to properly understand. There she collapsed in the arms of her parents, and awoke hours later to find herself in the hospital.

_Not that it matters, _she decided, and slept through the day. And the next.

Her father's diagnosis was trauma and shock, thought there wasn't a single mark on her body. The prescription was rest. So she slept and rested. She knew her friends needed her, that she should be searching for them, and for the brushes of hell, but sleep was all she could do. Her human friends visited her, talked to her, joked with her, and make fun of her. They made her smile again. Eventually the trauma of having endured the underworld for two days faded, leaving her a little refreshed and ready to seek the dear friends she knew she should be looking for.

That hospital was full of small phantoms also helped. She'd killed more than ten, at first unable to stomach _eating _them. Not only were they disgusting, but consuming something's life force was such a ghoulish thing to do. But even in her shock, she knew she had to eat, and that it was such life-forces, if something dead could be called alive, was what she needed. So, eventually, she'd cornered one phantom that didn't look too gross, and had managed to swallow what looked like another tiny mouse. This one had had a single tail and three eyes. The energy it'd filled her with had helped her hold her distaste at bay long enough to hunt and feed on three more. Sated, and grossed out, she'd then rested.

As Izanami had promised, her skin was now her tail, though she still had something that resembled her old tail. She knew it would also work as promised, deceiving those who saw it. But if cut, she would still live. It was good change, and she knew it, but the memory of the pain it'd required caused her to tremble nearly to the point of blacking out.

Now, in her spirit form, feeling refresh, Hiyori stood atop the hospital, humming with energy and purpose. She knew her parents would be inside, worrying again, but the lives of her friends overrode that concern. So, she took a step forward, and leapt, crossing the distance to the next building. There she raised her nose to the air and sniffed. Nothing. Pausing the take an appreciating glance at the rising sun, she took another leap.

Before her, gleaming in the brilliant rays of the sun, the city was beautiful; it was also starting to decay. Despite it being only a week since Bishamon and the other gods had disappeared, she could see the chaos the phantoms were now bringing to her home. The traffic seemed a little faster, but not in a good way. It was as if the people were in more of a haste, less willing to give way, or stop to let people cross the street. They ran yellow lights, and red lights. Passing one storefront she saw a newspaper mentioning a striking rise in traffic fatalities.

Within the alleyways and other places of shadow, she could feel nasty thing lying in wait, patiently hoping for an unwary victim to stroll in. Within the darkness there was Gloom, and in the Gloom there were phantoms. Another newspaper mentioned an increase in muggings. And yet another talked of the rise in child fatalities from gang violence.

Stopping to sniff the air for perhaps the hundredth time, Hiyori wondering what the city would be like after a year. She knew many other cities and towns had no gods to cull the phantoms, and it wasn't unusual for her to see stations on the television mentioning what those places were like. Her home was special, a place for the others to look up to and strive for. But now it seemed it was her home that might sink to the level of crime and despair that at times gripped those other places.

_There has to be some clue, some scent I can find …. _Hiyori took a leap and balanced on the top of a telephone pole. _I need to get higher. I need to see the whole city. If …. _She shook her head. _Maybe …. It's worth trying. And I need something to help me see._

An hour later she was at the fair – one that offered hot-air balloon rides – carrying a small telescope. An hour after that she knew she'd been right to try it. With the telescope, high in the air on a bright, clear day with no fog and no smog, she'd been able to survey a large swath of the city, and while there she'd seen a lion. Not the regalia of Bishamon, but a lion none-the-less. And she'd seen a giraffe. That, she was pretty sure, was not a normal thing to see wandering the streets of the city. Then there'd been the kangaroo. And they'd all been in one spot. A spot that could only be the lair of the sorcerer who'd stolen the brushes of hell._ Or some crazy, rich eccentric who likes foreign pets, _Hiyori mused, wondering how likely it was to be the sorcerer's lair. _It's not as if lions and giraffes and kangaroos are common forms for phantoms, _she admitted. Yet her instincts told her it was the right place.

With Izanami's warning about how powerful the sorcerer might be, Hiyori made a trip to Kofuku's house. There she wrote down the place and the location where she'd seen the animals. If she had to hazard a guess, not many people messed with phantoms, and so thought the sorcerer might very well be the one who'd wrecked such havoc at the school. _If I die, they will have a record of where to go, if they come back. _She also took a minute to pray at Bishamon's shrine. She was, after all, the goddess of battle, and a battle was what she expected to find when she met the sorcerer.

So, after having put her affairs in order, it was around midday that Hiyori found herself standing atop the tallest building she could find, little more than a mile from the suspected sorcerer's lair. What she saw using her newly purchased telescope was a simple house, not really big at all. That made her wonder for a moment if she'd actually seen the animals. If maybe it'd been merely some parade passing by, or such such thing.

Still, she stood there, watching, waiting. White, with green roofing tiles, the place wasn't all that out of the ordinary. There was a large porch, almost as large as the house itself, made of pressure treated wood. There was neither varnish nor paint on the wood. Around the place was a small yard, neither poorly nor well maintained. It held numerous small bushes and a number of flowers.

_It's too bright and cheerful for someone who messes with phantoms, _Hiyori told herself, wondering if she was trying to talking herself out of further inspection. _But Kofuku's a goddess of poverty, and her home is spectacular with a garden and a spring and a cheerful shop where people gather to eat, drink, chat, and laugh. Looks can be deceiving._

Then she saw Fujisaki Kouto, the boy who'd stolen a kiss from her, stroll up the road, stop briefly to talk with a neighbor, cheerfully inspect the mailbox, and enter the house. A horde of phantoms had been following him.

_One sorcererous hideout located, a daze _Hiyori thought, unbelieving of who the sorcerer had turned out to be. _Can there be two sorcerers, _she wondered. _Fujisaki is a high-school student, like me. He can't have an ancient spirit, can he? But Izanami also said a man of not many years, so …._

When the boy who'd stolen her first kiss left the house to sit on the porch the cautious girl watched and waited. Hours passed with the object of her attention sometimes entering the house, sometimes sitting outside. That he was indeed conjuring the phantoms, rather than just having them follow him, was confirmed when he withdrew a brush from a large pocket, wrote symbols into the air, and a wolf-like creature appeared. It was all too similar to the wolf-like phantoms she'd already seen a number of times. Not only at the school, but when that Nora had …..

"What are you doing?"

Hiyori spun around to see the Nora she'd just been thinking about standing there, watching her. "Hiiro," she said, wondering what to do. The girl before her had short, black hair and stunning purple eyes. She wore a robe of white with a red and purple sash. But as beautiful as the girl was, that wasn't what Hiyori was focused on at the moment – it was the way the girl had tried to kill her not too long ago.

"What are you doing? Spying on Father? That's bad."

"Father? Is he the one who killed the children at the school?" Hiyori asked, suppressing the urge to take a step back, to not be intimidated by the girl.

"Why can't you just leave me and Yato alone?" The girl's voice held some anger, yet came across as pleasant and sweet. "We were happy before you came along."

"Yukine was infected by whatever you did at the school," Hiyori informed the girl, wondering how far away the edge of the building behind her was, just in case she needed to jump out of the way. "He nearly had his heart ripped out."

"Good," came the simple reply, delivered with great sincerity.

"If he goes berserk, like the other regalia, he'll blight Yato."

"I never blighted Yato; why did he pick that loser over me? I've never hurt Yato."

"Yato might die." _She loves Yato, right, so how can she be so casual about this? _Hiyori wondered, edging backwards.

"He'll be reincarnated." This was said with a smile. "He'll be mine again."

"He won't remember you. He'll be a stranger."

"No. He'll name me again, and then he'll remember. He'll see what fun we had together, and it will be like it was back before he became weak. I'll be his one and only regalia again. I'll be his guide. We will be together forever."

"He doesn't want to kill again. I won't let it happen," Hiyori said, speaking loudly, firmly, radiating false confidence.

"You won't be around to get in my way, Hiyori Iki." She drew several small items from a pocket and let them fall to the ground.

"Crap," Hiyori said, quietly muttering the words. Before her there were seven wolf-like creatures. As before when the Nora had hunted her with phantoms, they all wore a plain white mask with a single eye drawn on them in black. This time, however, they were not vanishing in the sunlight. And if anything, their jaws seemed a whole lot bigger and their claws a heck of a lot sharper.

"Go for her tail," Hiiro commanded, and her army of loyal followers swarmed forward.

_Fuck, _Hiyori mentally snarled at herself as she raced from the pack, twisting her tail as she did so, arching it upward, and hopefully away from those jaws full of sharp, white teeth, that dripped ethereal saliva.

_Still, I'm in better shape than before, _she thought, seeking a way to stay alive, knowing the sun wouldn't save her this times, and nor would Yato. She was on her own against a girl that loved to kill, and had killed for centuries.

Bouncing around, taking huge leaps into the air, she landed on the edge of the building and turned to face the wolves. Her butt was facing outward, with her tail over the edge, pointing straight up in the air.

Two of the wolves flashed around her, and started to swarm up her legs and waist. Their jaws reached for her tail.

"Frig," Hiyori said, seeking to remain calm though it felt like her heart was racing out-of-control. 'Frig," she repeated, leaping for a corner. The wolves followed almost as fast as her eye could follow them.

"You don't need to do this," she screamed, racing around in a circle that consisted of four leaps, each to a corner of the building. "It'll make Yato mad."

"He won't remember you," Hiiro countered, smiling. Her eyes glinted with excitement as she watched the girl she hated frenetically run around and around and around, a bare step from death.

"Neither will Fujisaki," Hiyori yelped, twitching her tail, actually feeling the wolves drool on it as she then frantically changed the direction of the circle she'd been following,

"I don't plan to tell him," Hiiro said casually, twisting around and around as she followed the swift loops her helpless prey was making. "He keeps telling me no when it comes to killing you and Yukine."

_Well, it was worth a try, _Hiyori thought, then she almost came to stop, nearly tripping over her own two feet in shock. _What? But I thought it was the sorcerer …._

"I took his brush, and I made a phantom for Yukine," Hiiro explained. "It was fun." Then the girl's lips turned down, and she pouted in a very un-Hiiro-like fashion. "He wants Yukine as his regalia. First I lose Yato to Yukine. And now Father? No!"

"You ever think about forgetting about killing, and just joining Yato and Yukine for … oh, I don't know …. ice cream, maybe?"

"Killing is what we do." It was stated as a statement of fact, an undeniable part of her twisted reality.

_Talking is useless, _Hiyori reluctantly admitted, still wondering what to do. If she ran, Hiiro might tell Fujisaki about the spying. He would prepare, and the brushes, which she now knew he carried in a pocket, might be placed somewhere safer. She had to … attack. But Hiiro was a person, even if a malevolent one, and Hiyori was no killer. _Frig, _she thought, feeling rage at her impotence flowing through her veins._ Treat it like that blasted underworld … one step at a time. First those blasted wolves, then ... _The plan formed, and she acted ….

Any borderline she could make would be nearly useless against the wolves, but only nearly …. In the air, moving from one corner to the next, she twisted and cast a borderline, cutting one wolf from the pack. Weaken and pitiful as it was, the six trailing phantoms were forced back one step, one brief fraction of a second, before they easily smashed through.

Hiyori landed, swiveled around, pivoting on her right foot, and smashed her left into the skull of the leading wolf, the one that had gotten separated, if only by a few feet, from the pack. Driven with the power she'd felt humming through her since she'd started feeding on phantoms, the head of the beast shattered, and then faded, as did the body.

"Father is not going to like that," Hiiro admitted, frowning a little.

"Screw your Father," Hiyori snarled, barely making a leap to temporary safety as the pack continued their swift pursuit. _Damn, I've been around Yato and Yukine too much. I'm becoming a potty mouth …._

"He would love that," Hiiro informed her prey. "He's been obsessing with you ever since he kissed you. It's disgusting."

_Wait, her Father is Fujisaki? _Hiyori gave her head a small shake. _Focus, _she commanded.

Another quickly formed borderline was cast, and as before a single wolf was separated from the pack. Landing lightly on her feet, Hiyori swung around to meet the solitary beast one-on-one. A quick snap kick to its jaw caused the head to once again shatter, and the body vanished after doing a somersault.

Feeling more confident, the wolves having been cut down from seven to five, Hiyori stepped forward, and met the oncoming horde of phantoms. They attempted to swarm her, and failed.

Another quick kick, snapped at the next wolf in the pack rendered it as dead as the previous two. Two wolves, with their unnatural agility, tried to flow past her, to snap at her tail. They met the fate of their brethren when Hiyori snagged them both by their snouts, one with her left hand and one with her right.

There was a sickening double crunch, and their own supernatural speed snapped their necks. It took longer for them to fade, but they ceased their hunt, and her fingers slipped upward to rip at their masks. Then they joined their brothers and sisters as they evaporated, becoming a mist that blew away on the wind.

"Stop," Hiiro screamed. "What will I tell Father …. Damn you Hiyori Iki …. Bind."

Hiyori was confident. The power of being a succubus flowed through her veins, and she knew victory was at hand. Hiiro she could handle when the final two beasts of her phantom horde was gone. Then her legs collapsed beneath her … and the remaining two wolves were upon her, going for her tail. With the closing of their jaws Hiyori screamed, feeling like her very soul was being ripped out. Then it faded to an ache.

"_Fuck," _she faintly yelped, feeling a remnant of the shock from what Izanami had done. The tail she knew had been real, even if not necessary. It'd been formed from a strand of her old tail that'd grown back to full size, and losing it had hurt. Stunned and bound, she remained still. Satisfied, the wolves sat beside her.

"What am I going to tell Father?" Hiiro again demanded, walking casually up to the dying girl. "How do I tell him I lost five of his pets?" Her lips twisted into a deep frown as she considered her dire predicament. "He's going to want to know how, and I can't tell him about you because he wants to … do things with you."

Hiiro took a deep breath and sat beside her dying victim. "Shouldn't you be dead by now?" she asked casually? "Or are you different from other spirits? If I take an ear, can I keep it?" She shook her head. "But Father might ask where I got the ear." She poked Hiyori several times.

In deep terror, Hiyori stared up at the sky, focusing on not moving. It wasn't hard to do. Hiiro had used an invocation on her, had bound her. Her eyes, and perhaps her mouth, was all she could move. Yet those she kept unmoving as well, not wanting Hiiro to get suspicious, to set the wolves on her again. She played dead.

"Don't tell me I'm going to have to get rid of a corpse?" Hiiro said, sounding annoyed. "You should be fading? But you're not, and I can't leave you here. It's too close to Father."

A frightened Hiyori continued to stare, eyes starting to burn as the sun's rays pierced then. The pain lanced through her whole skull and she desperately wanted to scream. The form of the two massive wolf-phantoms beside her helped her keep the screams at bay. _Assuming I can scream, _a terrified Hiyori thought, deep in agony, needing to blink, to turn her head away from the sun. Yet her vision remained unhindered even as she felt her eyes steam, and the girl could visual them releasing ethereal water vapor into the air. _Oh gods, … please …._

"What do I do?" Hiiro asked again, poking the corpse with her right index finger. "I lost five phantoms, and I don't know how to get rid of your corpse. I could have them eat it," she nodded at her two remaining companions, "but what if you come back as a phantom. Might Father still find out?"

_Don't worry, _Hiyori silently fumed, raging her thoughts uselessly at the girl. _If I ever move again, I'll strangle you, you bitch._

"Are you breathing?" Hiiro asked, and she leaned over Hiyori. "How can you breath?"

_No …. _Hiyori tried to yell, petrified, when a small hand closed over her mouth, pinching her nostrils in the process.

_Do spirits needs to breathe? _Hiyori asked herself, needing an immediately answer, just like she needed to take an immediate breath. _Wait. What do people breath? Air. And what do we use air for? To burn food. And since spirits don't need to eat, we shouldn't need to breath, right? _Knowing air wasn't necessary to her continued existence helped little. She _needed _to breathe just like spirits craved food.

A sharp pain in her lungs joined the piercing pain that penetrated her whole skull, and Hiyori felt herself go into a state of shock. Unmoving, uncaring of her lack of breath or burning eyes, she stared into nothingness. Then the hand was removed.

"Good." Hiiro informed the corpse. "You're not breathing any more."

_Neither will you when I get out of this, _a traumatized, yet strangely untroubled Hiyori calmly thought, wondering why she even cared. Then she felt her little toe move, and a burst of hope helped wipe away the tranquil state that she'd been descending into.

_And, I … feel good …. I'm a spirit, I don't need air, and I think my eyes are healing; they're healing as fast as the sun is burning them? _The excitement, the awe at this helped drive away more of the placidity that had nearly overcome her. _But why can I move, at least a little? Is the invocation wearing of?_

_No? _Another of her not uncommon bursts of insight flowed into Hiyori, enlightening her as she recalled the seal to Izanami's underworld. _I'm feeding. I was sitting with my tail to the seal, and I … ate … the power that formed it. And … the invocation, its on me, in me, and I'm eating it. That's why I feel so good …._

The she felt the invocation give way, and her body was hers to command again. A vindictive Hiyori stared into the blinding sun, and if Hiiro had seen her thoughts the butcher of men would've been appalled.

_Hiiro can bind me again if I move, so I have to disable her first. How much damage can two phantoms do to me before I get around to handling them? _Hiyori's mind burned with dark thoughts. Inside she smiled, then she breathed.

Hiiro blinked, frowning, troubled by what she saw. "You're breathing again? How? You don't have a tail, and its been minutes and minutes, so why aren't you dead?" She went to place her hand over the mouth of her helpless prey. When that helpless prey opened her mouth and bit off three of her fingers at the knuckles, Hiiro stared, too shocked to even scream.

Disbelieving of her own actions, Hiyori reached out and grabbed the girl by the throat, nearly crushing it as she stood. The wolves hadn't moved, so she took a quick and very vicious kick at one, sending it into non-existence. The other swiftly followed.

She turned, eyes glowing with blood-thirty rage, back to the girl still held dangling by the throat in her hand. "I'm so pissed at you, you damn bitch, that I could spit nails. Your nails." She was all too aware of the three fingers she'd swallowed, and how they now felt in her stomach, fueling her succubus body with energy and power. It was different from a phantom, and it felt so good.

Face pale, Hiiro raised her hand to stare at the missing fingers.

Hiyori waited, wondering what the missing fingers meant to a regalia. She didn't care. Somewhere inside her, she realized she'd learned something. _Sometimes the only way to handle a pest, is by putting it down. _She had no plans to kill the girl, but neither did she care if the bitch got hurt. _Sometimes, paybacks a bitch, and that's the way it should be. _She watched the girl, waiting for her next move.

"Your tail?" Hiiro said a minute later, sounding utterly and eerily calm.

"It grew back." Hiyori swished her tail, flicking the girl's face with it. It had, like all her wounds, healed with unnatural speed.

"Not possible. You're dead." Hiiro shook her head. "You're dead. I took your tail. I killed you." She blinked. "What will I tell father?"

"Don't worry about Father," Hiyori snarled, trembling with fury. "Odds are, you'll never get to meet him again."

The words didn't faze Hiiro. Instead it was Hiyori who was forced to reconsider what to do when the bitch didn't even blink at her threat.

"Yato won't name me now," Hiiro said sadly, and actually began to weep. "He'll reincarnate, and forget me. I'm alone."

"Damn it! I hate her!" Hiyori screamed, roaring like a madwoman at the sky. Viciously she shook the girl. There was no response. "I hate her! I hate her! I hate her!" Recalling the sorcerer was less than a mile away, her jaws snapped shut.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: Immediately after the previous chapter._

Hiyori studied her captive for a few seconds, then let her go. When the girl collapsed to lie outstretched on the hard asphalt roof, she performed another quick snap kick, this one at the girl's head. There was no explosion of phantom goo this time; she'd merely aimed to keep the girl quiet for a while. Even so the act sickened her, which in turn led to relief; the events of the past few days hadn't turned her into a monster.

_The brushes, _she then thought, immediately focusing on her objective. _If Hiiro warns her Father, however that works, it'll be harder. I need to get them now, but how? He's going to have more than a few phantoms …. So, how? Phantoms can smell, and I'm sure they'll give warning._

Determined to be rational, to remain calm through her sense of panic, Hiyori sat and stared through her telescope for a few more minutes, again keeping close watch on the sorcerer. Every once in a while she glanced at the girl who seemed determined to remain oblivious to the world. It was during one of those glances that she had an idea.

"Sorry, Hiiro," she said, not really meaning it. She took the girl's robe, discovering in the process that the girl wore little beneath it, and wore it over her own clothes. _It'll have the girl's scent, and even if it doesn't completely mask my own, it might cause the phantoms to hesitate. _Hiyori paused, wondering what else she could do. _I'm already covered in what's left of that phantom goo, the stuff from the wolves. Hopefully the sorcerer's phantoms will recognize that smell as friendly. I hope._

Moving, Hiyori dropped down to street level and headed for the lair of the sorcerer. As she passed a storefront she noticed a newspaper talking about gang violence. The headline portrayed several teens, many of who had baseball bat. _Good idea, _the girl thought, and made a quick detour to a nearby sports store. While baseball wasn't a common sport within the city, they did have a few. Soon she was armed.

Twenty minutes after leaving Hiiro napping on the building rooftop, Hiiro approached the house to within a hundred feet. There she waited, hoping the girl she'd left behind wouldn't wake up for a while. And she waited…. Fujisaki finally left the house to sit on the porch.

Hiyori bolted into action, racing around the house with all the speed she could muster, keeping low so she wouldn't be spotted, always keeping a hundred feet or more from it. Then she closed in, still racing as fast as her succubus body, fueled by the fingers of a certain unfortunate girl, could move. She was fast, and less than a minute after the boy had exited the house, Hiyori attacked him, coming down on him from behind, dropping from the rooftop.

The result was, at first, anti-climatic. The phantoms were used to the smell of Hiiro and the wolf-like phantoms that her Father allowed her to use. They gave no warning. Fujisaki was still looking away from the house, away from the direction the girl came at him from, when the bat stuck the back of his head. He collapsed immediately. One of the brushes, having been in use when he'd been attacked, dropped from his fingertips to roll a few inches away.

_Good, _Hiyori thought with great satisfaction. _Grab the brushes and run …. _Then the myriad of phantoms swarmed her.

With all the ferocity of a real lion, the lion that'd ignored her so far, now stood to grip her left shoulder in it fangs. The beast's powerful claws raked her from her collar bone all the way down to the calves of her legs. Two hyenas, as swift as the wolves she'd just faced, latched onto her ankles, one to each. A deer, actually rather pretty for being a phantom, reared up and stuck her with its front hooves. A goat, in turn, stuck her with its back hooves. In the space of two seconds, the victorious girl fell.

Unable to utter even a single shriek of pain as she fell, the stunned girl could only lie there for the brief second it took the lion to rake her again, leaving more gaping wounds. Then, as fast as it'd started, the onslaught ceased.

_Oh gods … why … _the girl silently wept as her body was again soaked in pain. _Why? _She tensed, preparing to fight back, to die. But the animals had stopped, and Hiyori had no desire to provoke them, so she stayed still beneath the massive lion that if real would've weighed several hundred pounds.

_Dumb of me, _she admitting, still gritting her teeth from the pain. _Of course they would attack when I attacked their master. Of course they would, but … damn it you gods, they attacked so fast. And now they're holding me for when Fujisaki wakes up. _Hiyori closed her eyes and took a deep breath, realizing she had a while to think. She'd hit the sorcerer pretty hard. He wouldn't be coming to anytime soon. _Blasted gods, …. _she quietly muttered, _where are you when I need you?_

Eyes still closed, seeking some relief from the hell around her, a weary Hiyori waited to heal. It was fifteen minutes before she was ready to even think about trying to escape. How to do that she had no clue. Above her the lion still rested on her, so she couldn't just flee. Nor could she fight from the position she was in.

Eyes now open, the succubus stared ferociously at the lion, wondering how to handle it. Her attempt to push it off, which would've been easy since it was a phantom, availed her little other than a hand that was missing a huge chunk of flesh. That she tried twice, and each time was met with snapping jaws.

Wiggling was futile. She moved, and the lion moved with her. There was the hope that she might wiggle to the edge of the porch and fall off, but when her efforts brought her close the lion hooked its claws into her and hauled her back. It also brought the hyenas growling to her ankles again, and she'd had to wait another fifteen minutes for them to re-heal.

_What would Bishamon do? _Hiyori wondered. _How would a god of battle get out of this? _The girl, vaguely amused despite her situation, snorted. _She has regalia, regalia that are guns, so she would shoot her way out. _Idly, she moved her head, looking around for the bat she'd brought, wishing she had a weapon. _But these are phantoms, _she gloomily reminded herself. _A bat doesn't cut it. It wouldn't even help against a mouse phantom, and these are no mice._

_Try pushing it off again, maybe? But that means waiting for hands to heal after it nips me, which I know it will do. Fujisaki won't be out forever. An Hiiro might come back. Same with wiggling, blasted hyenas like snapping my ankles too bloody much. _The thoughts roiled around her head, leading to one conclusion. _There's nothing I can do…. But Touno said to pave the way with your own two hands, so …. _

The thoughts stopped running through her mind in a useless torrent of half-formed, futile ideas. Instead she stared at the lion. _Is it smaller? _she wondered, sure it was. Not by much, but the lion had shrunk. Realization truck her, and Hiyori gave a small, short bark of hysterical laughter. _I'm eating it, _she thought, disbelieving. _It's sitting on me, and my body absorbs energy, so …. But not fast enough. It'll take days for it to die at this rate. Still, cool._

Something within Hiyori changed when she realized the lion above her was food just as the mice were. Dangerous food with fangs and claws, but it was just a phantom beast that fed on people. In a way, she and it were alike. It ate people, and she ate … whatever. The _experiment_ with Hiiro told her people, at least regalia, were food for her too. She, like the lion, was a predator.

Mind calming, Hiyori wondered just how far she could push the lion when it came to being rough before it bite back. Raising her head, remembering Hiiro again, she latched her own teeth into its flesh. There was a hazy aura that felt like fur, then a tougher skin. The lion grumbled, and pulled away sharply, but not before a tiny trickle of its phantom blood flowed into her mouth. The beast stretched, and settle back down, not having liked the bite one bit, yet determined to keep its prey captive for its master.

_Here goes … _Hiyori thought, fixing her mouth back upon the wound like some ghoulish vampire. She drank, occasionally nipping at the flesh to keep the wound open. It lead to her being nipped in return, but while the lion vigorously complained at times, it didn't actually attack. After all, her bites were merely scratches to the great beast. Nor did the hyenas seem to bother, just so long as it didn't look like she was trying to run away.

It took an hour, and all the while she feed, feeling the _blood _gather in her belly where it burned her with blight, then became food that nourished her spiritual form. _The mice weren't nearly enough, _Hiyori thought, now eagerly sucking the blood, relishing the way it made her body hum with power. Then the phantom, its life energy nearly gone, stood, turned around, and collapsed. It died, fading to nothing.

"Finally," Hiyori muttered, lying on the floor, facing the darkening sky. She licked her lips, her distaste at having drank the phantom blood long vanished. There she rested for a short while, knowing she'd eaten too much. Then, grinning evilly, her eyes turned to face the two nearby hyenas that'd broken her ankles so many time.

"Payback's gonna be a bitch," she said "and guess what? I'm that bitch."

Hiyori stood and the two hyenas bolted at her. One met a foot that was just as fast, knocking it back twenty feet. The other received a devastating punch to the back of its skull, briefly stunning it. It had no time to recover as the girl twisted, and kicked. The hyena faded.

The other hyena, having regained its footing, flashed at its prey; it was met with a cry of "Jungle Savate," and a foot that shattered its body. Then it took vanished.

Hiyori looked around. The other phantoms were ignoring her, obviously lacking any desire to aid their companions. With short, savage kicks, she killed them one at a time. They'd been ordered to guard their master, but the girl wasn't approaching him. And they'd been told to not randomly attack, so they didn't. Soon the area around the small, simple house was void of the unnatural beasts.

Hiyori took the brushes, grabbed the bat she'd bought, and turned to flee the scene of the crime. She saw Hiiro, still nude, swiftly approaching, running for all she was worth with a look of absolute terror on her face.

"Did you kill Father?" Hiiro screamed frantically, not glancing at the girl as she flashed past, dropping to her knees beside Fujisaki.

"I got what I came for," Hiyori said, still holding the brush. Then, blushing, she slipped off the stolen robe. "You can have this back. Sorry about the rips."

"If Father dies, Yato dies," Hiiro said, sitting on the porch floor, the look of terror easing from her face. "He's the only one who remembers Yato, so Yato will always live if Father remembers him." She glared up at her much hated enemy. "Just so you know, if you love Yato, you won't kill Father."

"I'll remember him," Hiyori said, watching as the girl tried to wrap herself in the robe. With eight massive slits, from the lion's claws, it left a lot to be desired.

"Father will live forever, you won't." The girl glared back. "So don't kill Father."

Hiyori sighed. "Obviously, if what you say is true, then I _can't _kill him even if I wanted to. I love Yato too."

For a few seconds the two girls stared at each other, neither sure if they were trying to stare the other down, or understand them.

Hiiro remained kneeling beside Fujisaki, her Father, but didn't reach out to touch or comfort him in any way. Hiyori, knowing she should flee, remained and watched, noticing how obvious the girl's lack of concern for her Father actually was.

"You puzzle me," Hiyori said, having silently watched the girl for all of several minutes. "I know you love Yato, yet every action you take is to hurt him." She shook her head, tired and disgusted. "I left a message about where I was going. I better get back and get rid of it before anyone finds it. If what you say is true and the gods find it …."

She fled the scene, racing back to Kofuku's place with the two brushes in her hand. There she destroyed the note she'd written, took a cold shower of blessed water, paused for a moment to recall the good times, and made her weary way back to her body at the hospital. The two brushes she buried in the garden. If she were to die and anyone found them, she wanted it to be someone she trusted.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: The day after the previous chapter (Morning)._

Rain pelted against the hospital window, soothing Hiyori who was lying in her bed, staring out at it, face tilted to greet the cool and slightly damp breeze that blew through the room. It was a day where, normally, she would've thought there was nothing to be done outside, a day where she could relax with a book or watch some television. Today, however, was not such a day. Bad as it was outside, she had to search, and she had to fulfill the first part of her deal with Izanami – to make her an offering.

_I said I would make an offering as soon as I got back, yet how many days has it been? I slept for two and then there was yesterday … so three?_

Hiyori sighed, and reluctantly pushed herself up, reaching for her laptop. An hour later she wished she'd continued to put the offering off. Izanami had given her what she'd asked of the goddess, and so she'd wanted to return the favor by making a suitable offering. A search on the web had told her just what sort of offering might most please a goddess who bore the name of the 'queen of the underworld.' It wasn't pretty, nor was it nice.

_Better make it extra nice just to be safe, but nice is … well, not nice in this case. _She continued to let the breeze blow across her face, cooling and calming her. _But if I suck the life out of living, well …. non-living, things, I can handle this. I might not like it, but I can handle it._

_Blood, _Hiyori then thought, cringing, and left her body behind. _Human or animal, but where do I get animal blood? It's actually a lot easier to get human…. And the web site said human is better, way better. I hope the gods forgive me for making an offering to the gods. Perhaps if I made an offering to the gods to ask forgiveness for the offering?_

She walked through the hospital hallways, hesitant about what she was about to do, yet she'd made a promise and she kept her promises. The goddess Izanami had not only answered her plea, the goddess had returned her to her body, saving her life. Had also returned her to the surface so she didn't have to make the trip back. Had _fixed _her tail so she didn't die when it'd been chewed off by those phantom wolves. _I really owe her, _Hiyori admitted. _And it's not like this is stealing, not really …._

She reached the laboratory where blood-work and other tests were done. There she followed the path from where the samples were collected, to where they were disposed of as medical waste. Checking the labels, she took several bags of blood that'd been collected for use during operations. Past the safe usage date, and already consigned to the waste bin, it was of no use to anyone. It would even save the hospital money by getting rid of waste they would otherwise have to pay to incinerate. It was something that'd been discarded, or so she told herself.

Next she gathered a large, black garbage bag and a candle before heading to a shrine that her laptop had pointed her too. With her spirit form soaked as soon as she left the hospital, she made the several mile trip, traveling to the secluded spot in leaps and bounds There, seeing the place was, as she'd thought it would be, empty, she stepped close to the shrine to see it was also weather worn and in shambles. In a short while, a few more years perhaps, it would collapse. But for now it still stood and would serve her needs.

Using mud she held the candle in place at the bottom of the shrine, taking care that it was out of the wind. Strangely, even so sheltered it should've blew out – it didn't. Next she hung the plastic bag she'd brought above the candle and filled it with the blood, perhaps two gallons in all. Then she lit the candle and poked a small hole in the bag.

The blood slowly dripped, hitting the candle flame as it did so, causing it to hiss and sputter, yet not go out.

Hiyori waited and watched for a while, then knelt and said a prayer of thanks. Still disturbed by what she'd done with what was the blood of actual, living people, she left the shrine in a hurry.

_Headlines tomorrow, _she thought with dark humor, _devil worshippers on the rise. Blood sacrifice found at altar. _She sighed, pushed the guilt and disgust to one side, and raced through the rain, wondering now how to find the gods who'd been lost for so long. She'd paid the price to learn what had afflicted them, and how to cure it, but it was useless unless she found the gods themselves. And, in truth, she was starting to lose hope. It'd been so long, and she'd seen the way the regalia were going berserk. The gods would've been stung to death in minutes and have been reborn back at their shrines.

For the next hour she moved around, making her way from one building top to the next, sniffing the air despite the way the wind whipped it around, making the attempt useless. Drenched, she returned to the hospital, shook off what water she could, and slipped back in her body.

For a while she sat, eyes closed, still letting the cool breeze refresh her. She'd been through so much, and her hope was fading, that she didn't know what else to do. So she rested, hoping for inspiration.

An hour later she felt a tremble, and saw a pink light streak to the heavens a short distance from the hospital. Far across the street, in the parking lot of a bank, thankfully nowhere near her parents' hospital, she saw what she knew to be a vent – an entrance to the underworld.

_And there will be phantoms, maybe, _Hiyori thought, looking with great longing back at her bed. Despite as little as she'd run around in her physical body lately, it was bone tired. The softness of her bed, and the comfort of knowing her parents were near drew her, yet she also knew the vent might carry things that needed killing. And while she had no desire to face any more lions or giant frogs, she was worried something might head her way, towards her parents and the patients they cared for.

"Ah hell," she muttered, grumpy and tired. _If they reincarnated, those gods better grow up fast, … real fast. _She led in the bed, and was soon free of her bodily restraints, running for the vent. The passageway closed before she even reached it and she saw a bird with a dark-red head and body, flapping neon-pink wings, closing in on her. About the size of a humming bird, it flew much like one – fast, with wings that hummed. It stopped to hover in front of her.

"Smells good, message, smells good, message, …." it repeated over and over.

"Message?" Hiyori asked. There were only two people she knew who might use phantoms, the sorcerer and the goddess Izanami. And since the bird had come from a vent she had great hope, and fear, that it was the later. She leaned forward, careful to not touch the phantom, and grabbed the tiny slip of paper it had hooked to one claw.

_Plastic, not paper, _she realized as the rain washed over the message. It read: 'Thief, from the vent seek 53,000 paces to the west, near the curve of a river.'

_Pace? Who the heck uses paces anymore,' _Hiyori asked herself, ignoring the bird to make a mad dash back to her hospital room. She soon found a pace was equivalent to seventy-six centimeters, and fifty-three thousand of them was around forty kilometers. Her computer also showed her that the area in that location, mainly grass, shrubs, and some small hills, was typically void of all habitation. _Perfect for a god whose regalia are going berserk, _the girl realized, hope blossoming. _They wouldn't have stayed in a city where they could possibly _infect_ others, or hurt people._

Despite an overwhelming desire to just dash of, an impatient Hiyori took some time to study the map, and send it to her father's printer in his office. A clear plastic bag gave it some protection against the elements, though not as much as she would've liked. She triple layered the bags, and hoped for the best. Telescope and bag in hand, she then fled the building, wondering how long it would take to travel forty kilometers. There were no trains, nor roads, in the direction she had to go.

It was dark, albeit dry, when she reached her first destination: a hill from which she could see for miles. Or could've if there had been light. Cursing as she scanned the locations of the nearby rivers with her telescope, helped little by the half-full moon, the darkness did her a favor – showing the location of a fire burning brightly in the distance. And the fire shed enough light to let her see one of the people who stooped to tend it – Kazuma.

"Thank you, Izanami," Hiyori gratefully screamed to the heavens. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and took the final dash she knew she would need to make before learning the fate of her friends. Heart racing, fear and hope driving her, she focused on the fire, praying it didn't vanish, that she'd made it in time.

What she saw as she closed in on her final destination shocked her. There stood, huddled together near the fire, were several people whose faces bore the mark of hardship and much unrelenting agony. The people who'd once appeared so young now looked as if they'd all aged fifty years, while around that sign of misery there were around fifteen mounds that she soon saw where the bodies of the regalia, many heavily mutated with signs of the blight. A few barely held even a human form. They didn't move and there was no sign to show if they were alive or dead. The place spoke of despair.

No one turned as she approached, and it was only as she stepped into the light, directly in front of them, that Bishamon looked up. "You," the woman said, surprised. "We don't know if what they carry will affect humans, so leave now." Even looking like she was seventy, the words carried the weight of command.

Hiyori herself was stilled by shock when she saw the face of the goddess. It was aged and blighted beyond recognition. If it had not been for the hair that hung to her feet, now white, she wouldn't have known the woman at all. It didn't help that the woman was nearly naked, covered only by what looked to be two jackets, one around her waist and another around her chest. Hiyori assumed they came from what her regalia had wore. It seemed those regalia, lying in unmoving mounds, were no long up to the task of covering their goddess directly.

"Goddess," Hiyori spoke, unsure of what to say. "What happened to Yato and Yukine?" she finally managed to ask, still staring in shock at the devastated goddess.

"They're both asleep," I think. It was Kazuma who answered her. He too had aged, though it was more like a wooden statue that'd been left out in the elements for ages, having been corroded by the wind and rain and the salt sea air. "Why am I not surprised to see you, Hiyori?" He forced a smile, greeting the girl.

Hiyori turned to seek her two friends when she froze. "And Ianuaria?" she asked. "Is she and her regalia okay? We need them for the cure"

"Cure?" Bishamon asked. "Child, we've tried her potions to no avail. While she is a goddess of healing, we are not humans. We are not alive." She gave a weary sigh, lowering her head as it grew to heavy for her to lift, to remain looking at the girl. "She can cure any human ailment, but this is something we haven't seen before."

Hiyori closed her eyes, recalling with perfection the most important words she'd ever memorized. "Spirits still feel the cold, still seek family. For ones given a name like the regalia, they are only a little displaced from the humans they once were. Just as they can feel the hunger though they have no need to eat, they know they can fall ill though they have no body that can catch the flu. My guess would be a sorcerer conjured a phantom from an existing disease, then set it loose on the regalia. And because the regalia believe they can be infected, they are, though only because they believe. It becomes a wish that turns back upon them, derived from their desire to be human again," she quoted, speaking the words she'd heard from Izanami so long ago.

"Whose words are those?" Bishamon leaned close. "Who would know what caused this?" She spread her right arm out to encompass the whole camp.

"Izanami," Hiyori said, meeting the goddess' eyes. "I asked her and she told me that this was her _guess_ on what happened. And she told me how to cure it."

"How did …." The goddess shook her head, confused. "She would not have answered such a plea from one of her shrines, nor would she have answered without a demand of her own."

Kazuma laid his hand on top of Bishamon's. "Nor do we have time right now to question her, nor the right. She brings us a gift." He looked up at Hiyori. "The cure, please?" His eyes begged, and Hiyori could read what they said: 'save my goddess, please.'

"The berries, mixed with the water that Ianuaria's regalia can produce, will if taken immediately before an ablution cure the regalia." She finally spoke the needed words to the ones that needed to hear them, and Hiyori felt a large weight being lifted from her shoulders, and from her heart. Still, she looked around, winching as she saw all the unmoving mounds.

"Are they all dead?" she asked.

"They're alive," Bishamon answered. "All of them. Ianuaria might not often deal with us gods, but she is a goddess of healing, a very powerful one. She placed them in a deep slumber. And as they have no thoughts in such a state, they can't sting us."

A hunched over Tenjin slowly raised a trembling, skeletal hand to stroke his beard. "Will the cure work?" he asked. "Do we dare risk it? Kazuma can't do the ablution alone, and we would need to wake up the least affected to aid us."

"I have two regalia I can call," Bishamon replied, "but they are children." Her body slumped even lower. "Do I risk them? Can I risk them?" Her voice, as low as it was, screamed no.

"Daikoku and Kofuku," Hiyori asked, pleading, "they're here too?"

Kazuma nodded to her. "Daikoku did an ablution. It was insane how much he struggled, not against us, but to resist the ailment. He completed the ablution, and we thought he was cured. A day later the insanity returned. We performed a number of ablutions with the other sick regalia as well, and each time it looked like they were healed. Then it always returned." he sighed, and lowered his head. "And more of them became sick. Too many. We might not have enough now to perform more ablutions."

"I will ask Ianuaria about the cure," Bishamon said. "And see if her she can mix more of the concoction." She looked towards Kazuma. "You see if you can find two among the sleeping regalia who can aid us." Going to stand, her face turned pale and the goddess fell back down. Her eyes closed, it took her several seconds to master the pain before she again spoke. "It seems I'm unable to even stand now."

Hiyori could only stare, hearing the disbelief in the goddess' voice at how low she'd been brought. She gulped, unsure of what to do, realized there was nothing, and turned to seek her precious friends among the corpse-like mounds. _I was too late. _The words echoed in her mind, and she cursed her own weakness.

"Hiyori," Kazuma said, hand still resting on Bishamon's. "Ianuaria's regalia were not affected. She kept them isolated and beyond that hill. You will see the light of a fire there. Go and tell her what you told us."

"Can her regalia do the ablution?" Her heart again raced with hope.

"No," Kazuma replied, crushing the hope, "they are not taught in the art of borderlines."

_Frig! _Hiyori turned and took a leap, clearing the bodies of the sleeping regalia, heading for the hill. Seconds later she reached the top to see a point of light in the distance, maybe no more than two-hundred feet away. Within seconds she found Ianuaria sitting there with her two regalia sleeping beside her, their heads on her lap. The goddess was singing strange, soothing words to the two girls. A lullaby_, _Hiyori realized, despite knowing none of the words.

As she approached the goddess, Hiyori saw that the woman, while looking tired, showed none of the signs of devastation that'd been wrecked on the other gods. She was merely someone who hadn't slept enough, or had one too many concerns. The children before her also looked healthy and whole, though not entirely content.

"Goddess, …." she started to say. Then she paused to sniffed the air.

"Smells good, smells good, ….."

"Ah frig." Hiyori turned to see a phantom bearing down on the small group. Still a hundred feet away, hardly visible in the light of the hall-full moon, she could only tell that it was huge with eyes that glimmered thirty feet above the ground. The actually body was hidden in the shadows of a hill.

"They need berries and blessed water back at the main camp," she shrieked the words, then glanced between the beast that was bearing down on them and the goddess. "Run," she added, running herself, though towards the beast.

As she approached it, Hiyori saw what she would be facing was a dinosaur, a T-Rex to be precise. "When the hell will all this stop?" she hollered at the uncaring heavens, then darted beneath the massive, trunk-like legs that the beast walked on. As she thought it might, it turned to follow her. She dashed out from behind it and ran in leaps and bounded, putting distance between them and the camp of gods who were obviously in no shape to handle a phantom, large or small.

_And what's it doing so far away from people, t_he tearful girl asked herself as the camp grew more distant. _Phantoms are made from the wishes of people, and they feed on people, possessing them, so where the hell did this one come from? _Running too hard to sigh, Hiyori wondered what to do. The hide of the dinosaur looked tougher than the skin of the frog she'd fought so long ago. "Of course it is," she muttered nastily to herself, "it's a dozen times bigger, maybe a hundred. It can afford a thick skin. And bigger teeth."

Turning to face the beast, she came to a stop. She had acted by instinct to lure it away from the camp, from the two children, and had no idea what to do. She watched the creature, thirty feet high, sixty feet long, weighing only the gods knew how much. _Well, it's a phantom, so not much, _she mentally quipped at herself. _Wonder how much it'll weight after it's digested me._

It took her by surprise. One second it was sixty feet away, giving her time, or so she thought, to dodge. Then it swiveled on its feet, agile despite its size, and the gigantic tail hit her full in the chest. As she flew through the air, Hiyori recalled what had happened. _It stopped at fifty feet, still moving like a freight train, and then it swung around? Cripes, this hurts. _The now not uncommon sense having her body badly battered tore through her, then the agony double as she hit the rocky face of a cliff. She slumped to the ground, ribs shattered. _I don't have ribs, _she reminded herself, _but oh gods does this hurt._

The beast stopped to sniff the air, looking around as it did so. It'd lost track of its prey, having knocked it more than a hundred feet. Snout still in the air, it caught the scent and at a more leisurely pace bore down on it again, drooling.

Hiyori stayed still, watching as the dinosaur casually approached. Even walking it moved fast, as anything its size had to with the length of the footsteps it took. Through the sharp pangs that wracked her chest, she studied her foe, and reminded herself of the painful lesson Hiiro had taught her not long ago, _you don't need to breathe, remember, so …._

Standing, Hiyori again leapt away from the predator. She kept running, making several giant loops around the fire that burned a mile away, always keeping that distance from it. She saw a triad of lights, forming a triangle, burst into being, leaping a dozen feet into the air.

To her dismay, the beast also saw it, and turned away from her to seek what might be easier prey, prey that didn't run so bloody much. Heart sinking, Hiyori turned and was now the one that gave chase. She reached the creature's giant tail when they were less than half-a-mile from the campfire, and ran up it.

"What sort of perverted wish creates a dinosaur anyway," she muttered under her breath. "Probably some nerdy kid …." She nearly ran into wide open, salivating jaws, the beast having twisted its head around to face her. It wasn't quite a hundred-and-eighty degrees, but was close enough if she hadn't come skidding to a stop.

"Fuck it! Fuck it!" she screamed to the sky. "I don't care if I got a potty mouth. This fucking sucks! What sort of beast can twist its head around like that." For several seconds she and the phantom stood there, staring, coming to mutual conclusions. She reached the conclusion that the beast was much too huge, and wanted to eat her. The beast reached the conclusion that its prey was a bit too small, but smelled delicious.

"Delicious, delicious, delicious, …," the creature uttered, reaching for the mini-treat.

"Savate kick," Hiyori roared back, spinning to kick with her right foot, smacking the beast in the nose. It took a step back, looking stunned.

_The nose, _Hiyori thought, grasping onto a faint hope. _Of course its sensitive in the nose, or snout, or whatever. _The beast shook its head, and the girl went flying. As she fell the jaws rose to snap at her, moving with the speed of a striking snake.

Hiyori found herself well inside the mouth of the phantom, actually, and thankfully, well behind its gnashing teeth. Raising its head, the triumphant predator prepared to swallow its shocked prey whole.

In full panic mode, a fantic Hiyori screamed and grabbed, scrambling only as an animal about to be swallowed whole could. Her flailing, grasping hands found a lose fold of flesh, and she clutched it, pulling with all the enhanced power her succubus body could provide when faced with immediate and certain death. The beast swallowed, and she hung on, feet dangling down its throat. Then it tried to swallow again, and she again hung on, clinging for dear life.

_Oh gods, … _the panic-stricken girl thought, staring up at the half-full moon that shone down into the pit of darkness, lighting the way. The beast tried to swallow, and she frantically scrambled to keep that wondrous sight in view, knowing it was the one and only path to salvation. Her powerful legs frenetically kicked valiantly at the beast's throat while her hands continued to maintain their iron grip on the flab of flesh that'd now saved her life half-a-dozen times.

The tongue wiggled, trying to dislodge the tasty morsel, and Hiyori found herself crushed against the back of the throat by what she imagined had to be thousands of pounds of pressure. Her grip didn't waver. She'd had plenty of practice lately being dazed, and her body, if not her mind, had learned that practice makes perfect. The beast swallowed, and the despairing girl, by some superhuman effort, managed to cling to life. Then she slipped, and the beast puked.

Hiyori found herself engulfed in a noxious stream of vomit that hurled her towards the miraculous light in the sky. It took her several seconds to recover, to realize what had happened while the stomach churning mess evaporated around her, and the nearby beast shook its head, looking fairly upset by the whole matter. It turned to lumber towards the camp.

"Fuck you," Hiyori tried to scream. It came out as a mutter, and she scrambled to her feet. In the distance the triad of lights still blazed towards the heavens.

The girl went on the attack, racing ahead of the beast that tried to to turn away from the annoying pest that smelled so good, but refused to be the moist and juicy treat she appeared to be.

"Jungle Savate," Hiyori slammed her foot into the phantom's nose, causing it to winch and stumble back a dozen feet.

"Jungle Savate." Her foot once again tore into the beast's now very sensitive nose, causing it to yelp and fall back, leaving it prone and helpless for a second.

"Jungle Savate," the girl screamed, only to find the nose she'd aimed for had vanished, and the jaws were coming for her again. For a brief fraction of a second the shocked girl felt her heart tear from her body, it was pounding so hard, and then … bang.

Not sure how, Hiyori found herself lying just inches from the claw-like feet of the beast. It seemed the heavens weren't entirely uncaring, and she was vaguely aware of the sound of a gun being slowly, and repeatedly fired. Bang…. Bang…. Bang…. Bang….

Forcing her eyes opened, she saw the gigantic clawed feet of the beast lift and cover the moon. Her arms and legs spasmed, reflexively, carrying her several feet to safety. There she saw Bishamon, still looking like a little old lady, standing less than fifty feet away. Her skeletal left hand cradled her right which held a single pistol. The pistol was smoking.

_Thank you gods, …. _Hiyori sobbed, too weary and shell shocked to say the words aloud.

"Run," Bishamon commanded. "Kazuha, as much as I think he's great, isn't going to cut it against that." Another two shots roared out, stinging the beast. "Where the hell did you find that thing anyway."

"It sort of found me," Hiyori replied, jumping to put a hundred feet between her and the phantom that was still standing, its head turned away from Bishamon. Its left eyes was a gaping hole, but as it seemed the beast's hide was thick enough to turn the 45 caliber bullet Bishamon's regalia, Kazuha, fired.

The dinosaur turned to face the woman who refused to leave it in peace and charged, keeping sure to keep its right eye safely out of sight. Bishamon, barely able to move had no chance to flee.

"Jungle Savate," Hiyori shrieked, smacking the beast in the nose, all too aware it might turn that massive head just slightly, and that she would then be making another trip between those jaws. She had no choice, unable to leave the goddess who'd just saved her alone to die.

Taking several backward steps, the beast ceased its charge.

"Don't suppose you got a battleship, or something, in the river ready to provide some artillery fire?" Hiyori asked, hoping.

"Sorry," Bishamon replied, giving a small smile. "What you see is what you get. An old lady with a bum arm who can't aim straight. And a gun that wasn't meant for dinosaur hunting."

"Ah frig." The girl studied the beast. "You hit its left eyes," she pointed out.

"Luck," Bishamon replied, looking like she needed to spit. "Damn it, I wish Kazuma had been here to see it. He's not going to believe me when I tell him."

The phantom turned towards the camp, its single eye focusing on the distance fire and much hoped for prey. It started walking. Bang, a bullet tore into its back. Bang, another bullet followed the first. It ignored them, confused, but not heavily bothered by the stinging.

"Damn it," Hiyori screamed, and took of running. In the distance another triad of lights burst towards the sky.

"Jungle Savate." The cry turned the heads of the regalia who formed the barrier for an ablution. They cringed as they looked to see the phantom that was making a beeline for them, less than two-hundred feet away.

"Jungle Savate," came the battered girl's battle cry, and the phantom turned, having had its nose once again badly stung. Its snout, covered in black blood, clearly showed the damage that the sensitive organ had received during the course of the battle.

_Its left eye and its nose are done for, _Hiyori noted, preparing for another attack. _We need to take out the right eye, then it won't be able to see the fire, or smell the people there. But how?_

"Jungle Savate." Its nose now a bleeding wreck, the dinosaur turned to chase the girl, taking a few brief steps in her direction. Then it paused, and turned back to the fire.

"Ah fuck it," Hiyori bellowed, heedless of who might hear her. "Fuck it! Fuck it! Fuck it!" Careless of her own safety, knowing too many more kicks at the beast's snout was a death sentence, the crazed girl raced up the creature's back, threw herself flat on its snout, hanging on for dear life, and plunged her arm in that one remaining, hateful eye.

The arm vanished up to her elbow, and then her shoulder as she plunged it deeper and deeper, hoping in vain to strike some vulnerability. She didn't, and was again flung off with brutal force. This time, the beast didn't snap at her. It had neither a nose to smell her with, nor eyes to see. It did turn its head to try to listen, and while those ears were sensitive, they couldn't detect the falling girl, who being a spirit, made little noise as she smacked painfully into the hard earth.

_I think I'll take a nap, _Hiyori thought, staring up at the sky from where she'd fallen. _Such a pretty place. _Then she heard the bang of Bishamon's pistol. _Ah, damn it mom, just five more minutes. _Still lying on the ground, she turned her head to see the blasted dinosaur was heading towards the regalia doing the ablution, drawn to the sounds of the phantom-like beast shrieking inside the barrier they'd formed.

Hiyori clawed at the ground, and stood. _If that regalia undergoing the ablution turns into a phantom, _she muttered to herself, _we're all doomed._ Then she was running.

"Jungle Savate," she kicked the beast in the nose, fervently glad that it could no long see, or smell, to aim those powerful jaws her way.

Bang, a shot from Bishamon rang out.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

"Jungle Savate." Bang. Bang.

Girl and goddess together repeatedly attacked the confused and overwhelmed phantom, luring it away from the campfire and the ablutions. Minutes passed, then hours, and each rested before resuming the attack. At some point, after hundreds of attacks from both the girl and goddess, the spirit of the phantom gave up, and died.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Sadly, I do not own the anime: Noragami. **_

_Time: A week after the previous chapter (Evening)._

Still in the hospital, sitting beside the open window, Hiyori sat at the wooden desk her parents had provided for her to do schoolwork. For more than a week she'd been repeatedly leaving her body to search for her friends, often for hours and hours at a time. Then there was the time she'd been comatose for two whole days while in the underworld. Then there was the time her body had disappeared from the hospital when Izanami had retrieved it to save her life. Then there was the time she'd been gone overnight, leaving behind her comatose body again. To say they were freaked out was the understatement of her life. They were going berserk over their little girl. At her insistence they'd allowed her to attend school, but that was it. Other than that she wasn't sure if they would ever let her leave again. _Maybe when I hit thirty, _the girl thought, idly twirling a pencil in her fingers.

Tilting her head, she peered out the window, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face. It was a pleasant day.

"Whose work is that?" her mother asked, leaning over her shoulder.

"Yukine's," Hiyori replied, not turning to look at where her mother was sitting, hoovering protectively over her one and only daughter. "He's a grade below me, and I'm tutoring him."

"Why haven't we seen him around?" Her mother's voice was immediately sharp and inquisitive.

"Did I say _he, _I meant _she" _Hiyori replied, half jesting, and knowing her mother would see it as such.

"Humph."

In her mind Hiyori saw her mother preparing to turn imaginary thumbscrews as she turned up the inquisition, and she smiled. "Honestly mom, it's just tutoring."

"How much is he paying you?"

"You mean how many hugs and kisses per …." She gulped. "Oops, did I let that slip."

"Hiyori," her mother said, sternly. "Have you been seeing a boy behind our backs?"

"It's just tutoring. Honestly mom, sometimes you're so much fun to tease. Did I ever tell you about the time I was with a boy and he …." She gulped again. "Oops, I better not tell you that, either."

"Does this Yukine come from a good family? Does he get good grades?"

_Oh gods, what have I done? _Hiyori cringed, wondering how to placate her mother. "I think they're a great family," she replied, thinking of Daikoku and Kofuku and Yato.

"Is he cute?" her father asked, standing in the doorway.

'Honey," her mother immediately shrieked, turning to face her husband, sputtering.

"Very," Hiyori answered, grinning as her mother continued to sputter.

Hiyori watched the two of them as her father valiantly walked into battle, hoping to quell the monster they'd unleashed, more content than she could ever remember being. Turning, smiling, she stared out the window, recalling the scene she and Bishamon had found when they'd returned to the campfire.

There she'd seen Daikoku collapsing inside the borderline that'd flickered, and then disappeared. Despite having nearly become a phantom, he'd come through the ablution, the third he'd undergone in less than ten days, with flying colors. The gods and regalia knew him well, and they'd placed the sleeping form of Kofuku in front of him and told him what she'd said, that if Daikoku wasn't there to greet her when she woke up, then she didn't want to wake up; that she would rather reincarnate than face the loneliness without him. Kofuku had been asleep, so she'd learned, because the girl had asked Ianuaria to place her into the same deep sleep as she'd placed the regalia.

Thinking of her parents, Hiyori understood the way the girl had felt. Even above their riches, and the welfare of the hospital, her parent's had one hope – that they would grow old together, and then die together. Their love was absolute, strong and pure, such as that between Daikoku and Kofuku. Whether sitting with her parents, or at the home of Daikoku and Kofuku, it was a glow she loved to bath in; it was also something she too dreamed of.

In retrospect, it wasn't surprising that all the ablutions went so well. As weary as the regalia were, as much as the strain had to be affecting them as they did one ritual after another, they were either from the battle-line of Bishamon, who had all been through an insane number of death-defying battles, or from Tenjin's harem where any member who stung the master was expelled. Thankfully, he'd made an exception in the case of those afflicted with the phantom disease, having decided it wasn't their fault. Personally, Hiyori thought the fact that one of those regalia turned into a pipe that he took great pleasure in sucking on had had more than a little impact on the god's decision. She shook her head, and continued to smile as she stared out the window, listening to her parents quietly talk in the background.

For her, Yukine's ablution had been the most …. She closed her eyes, not knowing how to express the feelings she'd had in her thoughts. Yukine had been near death when Yato had tore them away from that rooftop so long ago, and he'd been on the warpath. That Bishamon and the Tenjin hadn't stuck him down was a miracle that was due only to Yato standing against the pain of being unceasingly stung to tackle and render Yukine unconscious before any of the others had managed to act. Then he'd done the same with Daikoku while Kofuku had vehemently battered the other gods down even as her own body was stung almost into death. There was a bright ending, if one could call it that given Bishamon had stuck down one of her regalia before fleeing the rooftop, because Yato had done what was needed. Then, as the regalia had, one by one, fallen ill, he'd also been the one to help subdue them so Ianuaria could perform her magic.

Eyes still closed, she recalled that final ablution. The regalia had failed to hold Yukine, and he'd started to rampage. She'd held him in her own arms, retraining the near-phantom beast he'd become while pleading. Her arms, and Yato unmoving form, had somehow given him the strength to return. It'd been so close that …. Hiyori shivered a little, hugging herself.

"Are you cold, honey?" her mother asked.

"Nope, just a chill." She grinned at her mother. "Just a chill remembering all the things a boy did once..." She gulped. "Oops. Did I say that out loud?"

"Hiyori," her mother shrieked.

"And here I'd just calmed her down," her father said with a smile and a sigh. "You've been acting rather strange lately, young lady?"

"Just happy, I guess." Hiyori nodded at her mother. "And she's got to be prepared for when I do date a boy. She's way too strict about the sort of boy I should be dating. She'd faint if I brought home a guy from a biker gang."

"So would I," her father said, glaring at his daughter. Then he turned to fan his wife who looked a little too pale.

"I'm going out," she said, softly, as if making idle talk.

"No you're not," mother and father said as one, both now glaring at their one and only daughter with identical, outraged expressions.

Hiyori sighed. More than a week of constantly going in and out of a coma, had alleviated her father of any concerns he might've had about keeping his daughter in the hospital, day and night, forever and ever. "It's been a week," she told them, wondering how firm she should stand on the issue. "And I have things I need to do, places to visit, boys to lust …." She stopped short. "Forget the last part," she added, knowing she'd gone too far.

"No," mother said.

"No," father said.

"It's just a few places, then I'll be back."

"No," mother said.

"No," father said.

"Just an hour."

"No," mother said.

"No," father said.

Hiyori sighed, and briefly closed her eyes before opening them to bravely meet her parents' looks of outrage. "I have obligations," she said. "What sort of daughter would I be if I disgraced you?"

"No," mother said.

"No," father said.

"How angry would you be if I sneaked out?" Hiyori prepared for the apocalypse.

"Hiyori," her mother screeched, no longer looking like her graceful and beautiful self.

"I was just asking," Hiyori said, quickly retracting the threat. "Sorry." She glanced at her father to see he hadn't moved. "Sorry," she said again and sighed.

"Sorry, honey," the man finally said, making a sigh of his own. On his face there was a deep sadness. "Why do kids grow up so quick?" he wondered aloud, still staring at his daughter like he would weep.

_Ah frig, _Hiyori thought, and with another deep sigh she turned back to preparing Yukine's next assignment. _Forget thirty, I might be forty before they let me out of here._

Later that night, Hiyori was roused from a deep, but fully natural sleep, by a chirping that sung a familiar tune.

"Smells good, message, smells good, message, …."

Opening her eyes, she saw a bird with a dark blue head and body, with equally dark-pink wings that had a nervous flutter to them, sitting on the rail of her bed. There was, as before, a tiny slip of paper attached to its claws.

A little fearful, Hiyori pulled the slip of plastic from the claw and read it.

"As Ebisu is still a child, the brushes can wait a while before you deliver them to him. Deliver them as you see convenient. The offering was... sweet. Thief, if you would learn more about what you are, return to me. I would bargain with you further."

_Not in a million years, _Hiyori thought, crumbling the message. Lying down to sleep, she watched the phantom make its escape through the open window, content that it was gone, and that for a week her world had been nothing but bliss. _But what is a succubus, _she then wondered, eyes closing. _I have a thousand questions, perhaps more, and no one to answer them. _Tired, yet kept awake by her questions, Hiyori again opened her eyes to stare at the window. _Perhaps, …, _she admitted to herself.

* * *

This is the end of part one of the story, and for now completes the story. Further chapters to continue Hiyori's adventure might be added at a later time. There are a few loose ends I'd planned to include in this chapter, but they just didn't seem to fit in. I couldn't see Hiyori's parents letting her out of the hospital. But the gods have been found and the regalia saved, thus ends the first part of Hiyori's journey.

Please read and review.


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